rhythm and blues most commonly known as r b is a blues influence form of music introduced into the american language in the late 40s tonight we talk with america's premier r b music historian and learn unknown secrets about some of our favorite r b artists it's good to have you here from los angeles this is klcs pbs welcome to everybody with angela williamson an innovation arts education and public affairs program everybody with angela williamson is made possible by viewers like you thank you and now your host dr angela williamson tonight's guest is tyrone dubois tyrone thank you so much for being here thank you so much i'm honored to be here so tell us a little bit about yourself well um as a r b historian what i've learned particularly since i started this in the mid 70s i used to listen to casey kasem in cincinnati ohio and the american top 40 and i said i wanted to be like him i like the fact that he spoke about the countdown and he talked about the different nuances about the the people in which that were on the countdown and i said that's what i wanted to do so as an r b historian what i wanted to become was someone who preserved understood and somewhat became like a biographer of r b music particularly in the time frame of the 60s through the 90s where i think that's the most important aspect of of r b because of your extraordinary knowledge you are now a commentator on one of the most popular shows about r b artists can you tell us about that yes um i love that it's my ninth year i should say on tv's tv ones unsung and i absolutely love the show and what makes it unique is that i get the opportunity to speak about the artist and talk about their journey their highs and lows their their challenges their changes their their triumphs their their tragedies but all along it's really the the story about their life and the story about music the gun went off and shot him in the stomach my man was walking one day and the next day he wasn't there was rehab and there was interventions what we was going to do how he was going to do this a group who years ago was at the top of the world now becomes the bottom of the heap so tell us how you got here tell us a little bit about your background well uh being from cincinnati ohio i've always dreamed of being on the radio i used to listen to different people not just casey kasem but some people that were in cincinnati ohio and then i moved here to los angeles thought i was going to be a big baseball star that didn't work out but as time went on i just learned and perfected becoming in radio so i would drive from my home in los angeles all the way to barstow california which was about 150 miles and i would go every other weekend i'd be on the air from midnight to six and uh i would learn to perfect about music and while i was there i said you know i want to make my own show and i'm gonna try to figure it out and up came this show called timeless tracks based on the countdown of the top r b songs in america according to the national r b singles charts and how did you prepare for the show when you learned that you wanted to be unique what i always believe people misinterpret is what they've what they become they they say they want to be better but better comes with expectations so i always tell people that different always usually gets you what you want and so what i decided instead of just saying i was a music historian i wanted to say i was an r b historian because i believe by being an r b historian that gave me the opportunity to speak only about the culture the music and the preservation of of rhythm and blues music well we have you here tonight and we want to hear something that no one else has heard before so tell us one story well one of the biggest stories that i tell people is when i got the opportunity of a lifetime to meet casey kasem i was uh at an event and he was there he had this sweater on and it said radio and i was like oh my god i didn't have much of anything and i went to the bathroom to try to fix myself up and he said um and so i walked over to him and i said mr kasem and he said call me casey and i went no sir i'm not calling you casey i'm calling you mr case i mean he laughed about it and uh we developed a really good friendship he taught me how to uh to speak in cadence when you were doing a show and it was an opportunity of a lifetime and he's one of the main reasons why i continued to uh to be a r b historian i love that story i also want to hear a story about one of the r b artists that you researched and you thought i didn't know that um one of the biggest artists that always stood out to me particularly the ones on unsung was a woman named martha wash she was with the show she was with sylvester back in the 70s and then she became her on her own with two tons of fun and what happened is although two tons of fun was successful she sang on three different songs that all became number one and got credit for none of them and she had to wind up suing in order to get the credit with everybody dance now everybody everybody like when you saw everybody dance now you thought it was the woman singing but actually that was martha wash and many people didn't know that and that wasn't the only song there were other songs with a black box with everybody everybody and there was a couple other songs but she had three number one singles and got credit for none of them and so that was something that um you know you take it somewhat personal because this is you're talking about someone's life and so in her instance she got the credit and i remember saying on on television the pay didn't you know come close to the pain and i think that was the part that was important and when you're doing this research because that's a very unique story as you said about the pain what do you find common among all of your r b artists that they all have the same experience might be a little bit different but they all have the same experience two things one of the things is either justification for who they are or vindication to where they been i think all of them want a sense of recognition of just knowing that they played a major part in the the essence of r b music and that's difficult for them to obtain because with so many different artists you know it's it's really difficult for some person to stand out they may stand out in a moment in time or in a certain year or a particular instance but what i've learned all of them want a sense of recognition for the work in which they've done and it's painful for them to talk about a lot of their past because the only thing we're speaking of particularly on unsung is their truth i would love to hear a little bit about how you prepare for your segment it's called a 60-second moment in history cheryl underwood gave me the opportunity of a lifetime she she knew i was on unsung i had an opportunity to speak with her and so she said you can do any show anything you want music country r b anything and that really helped me because i actually knew the pop charts better than i knew the r b charts so um the 60 60-second moment in music history is me looking at a book finding out where a song has placed sometimes i talk about you know you may think it's a big song but in actuality it's not as big as you think as far as the charts are concerned and i just simply just talk about it and i have to get it all in in 60 seconds so what i realized is is based on the cadence in which i speak it has to be no more than 208 words somehow or another i've got to give 208 words in a 60-second minute and 60 seconds uh to get through and that's kind of tough okay and tell us about the one tough segment uh the toughest segment was one that i wound up getting a phone call from and it was songs that you thought were huge but they were big but they weren't big on the charts and i remember saying something about al greene's song love and happiness and i said la al green song love and happiness only went to number 98 but it was only on the charts for three weeks and then apparently he heard it and i got a phone call i got a phone call from al green and he said well are you sure you know he's like telling them like sir it's like i'm just speaking about the charts but it's kind of good because you'd be amazed how many people in the business will call me and ask me about their autobiography or commentary or analysis and that's what makes being an r b historian unique and how has it become your mission now that you have a book coming out tell us about that the four seasons of r b was something that i had always wanted to do but i i saved four seasons because between the 60s and the 90s of course r b started in the 40s and the 50s is where it ramped up but the 60s is where it really all began i think about the temptations and you think about you know ray charles or james brown and some of these other major artists then from the 60s through the 90s i said i wanted to pick what i considered my top 10 of all of these artists in certain decades and it's really unique for me because it gives me a chance to go back and and look at things that i didn't really understand at the time and didn't realize that some of these artists were actually bigger than i thought they were some of them are very surprising and so i left it not only just being my pick but i left some of them in their standing of where they deserved to be and you know in the history of r b music wow and how long did it take you to work on this book and when can we expect to see it it's uh i actually just finished the 80s i will give people a hint of and so i've got the 90s left which isn't so hard uh one of the examples is i will say for the example the jackson 5 in the 70s they had 20 you know they had 26 records that entered the chart and 23 reached the top 10. and that's amazing but they weren't the number one group of the 70s you're giving us a teaser oh that is so nice that's a teaser but even they weren't as big as the number one artist okay so we have to get the book so we have to know that and why did you think that this book was important now it's important because one of the things i do on the show timeless tracks is not only do i talk about the the artist but i talk about the day that or the date that the artist entered the chart and when you hear the date that it entered the chart that tells you it puts you back in the position of where you've been like i'll say you know this song reached number three but you know entered the chart you know may 4th 1972 and you know you go back to may 4th 1972 and you wonder where you were when you heard this song last question so i'm really interested in learning a lot more about r b so what should i do to learn more about my favorite artists this part's so cool i love this part all you have to simply do is uh you can uh get a lot of calls from different people but more importantly you can go to my website which is rmbhistorian.com and the best part of being able to learn about it is it's just the information on the internet it's not all good you know you're not 100 sure but if you are really a person who loves music everything in which you want to know it's out there for your favorite artist tyron thank you so much for keeping the legacy of our favorite r b artist alive and congratulations on your upcoming book and thank you for giving us a bit of a teaser even if he didn't give us the answer i'm very honored thank you so much i appreciate being here [Music] no two days are alike so every day you prepare [Music] for yourself for those you love [Music] for whatever the day may bring being prepared is a part of who you are but in the case of a disaster preparation isn't always front of mind in an emergency when help and resources may not be available for days being prepared is more important than ever it's up to everyone to be informed about what types of emergencies might occur where you live or visit knowing the best responses 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down people on the road will stay safe and sound [Music] there are over 1 billion search results for empowerment during covet 19 on google more than ever people want a silver lining to everything that is happening around us tonight we limit your search to one person who is creating tools to help us empower during these changing times jesse brisendine thank you so much for being here tell us a little bit about you yeah thank you for having me here and my my day-to-day life is really working with individuals and organizations to help them break through limiting beliefs move beyond limitations and really unlock what we might call their greatness so you are the creator of it's zero limits coachiness and this is to help individuals and organizations to find their greatness tell me how did you come up with this and tell us just where you're from yeah i grew up in a little tiny town northern california and i moved down to santa barbara where i live now for college and as i was growing up i really realized that i was selling myself short in life i would look in the mirror and avert eye contact immediately because the person i saw i didn't like and then some days i downright hated and i had a epiphany moment at one point if you will that i realized that the biggest person holding me back from what i wanted in life was me and that if i really wanted to live my life without limitations you know to be able to experience the most in life i had to start with first falling in love with the person i saw in the mirror so right now a lot of people are questioning the person that they're looking at in the mirror and what i love about you is that you have two things that you can tell us about that you started so let's talk about that yeah i actually both of those a handful of hope and building a bridge they were inspirations of waking up from a oh you know what moment that i'm sure most of us have had at least more than one during this whole time and it was really a how can i help people how can i serve and the two pieces handful of hope is about just providing people with tools and resources and tips if you will to help them live a better happier more helpful more fulfilling day in their business and their personal life and their relationships and building a bridge was one of those series where after watching everything transpire george floyd i i realize that i am that person who will often have very strong opinions behind the scenes but it will not venture the risk to say anything or do anything about it and my friend jared and i start a conversational piece about just really trying to build a bridge and evolving our conversations beyond race relations to really elevating the collective consciousness of humanity and it's it's been absolutely incredible to see what both these pieces are the communities they're creating and the lives they're touching so let's talk about why you're here today yeah when everything started with coveted in march i woke up with what i would call an oh shoot moment we use different words and i think all of us have had at least a few of those moments and it was one of those what am i going to do what's going to happen and i came up with this idea of starting a podcast called a handful of hope and the idea was to do an interview series with people and get them to share some tools some tips to help support people during this time and what i thought would be just 8 to 10 people is now since april evolved into over 150 people have been interviewed so far and it's been absolutely incredible to see how generously people are just volunteering to share and to really offer up some hope for folks to get through this time and give them something tangible they can use and the second reason was when everything happened with george floyd and mma i realized that i was one of those people who would sit out of the camera's view rather with strong opinions about what should be done and how things could change but wouldn't venture any risk to say anything about it i reached out to my friend jared about starting a conversational series and him and i started this conversational series called building a bridge and it's been a really really incredible piece to see the way that we're facilitating communication and the group that's growing the community that's growing around it and really having really difficult conversations about the uncomfortable stuff we hear about but going into depth with it and going into depth from a place of seeking to listen to learn to empathize to understand rather not to judge and not to you know have it be a competition of who's right or who's wrong and what not and it's been a really incredible experience so far and having been a consumer of aunt jemima for a number of years i always just looked at her as like this grandmotherly figure buckwheat pancakes you know i really just always looked at her as this like grandmotherly figure and there was never any sort of racial kind of piece to it at all i just thought there was this really grandmotherly figure and then as i got older and became more entrepreneurial i looked at aunt jemima as like a entrepreneurial person that maybe this was somebody's aunt named jemima you have two shows going on right now and for each show i would love for you to tell us the biggest takeaway that you've gotten from a handful of hope and building a bridge yeah i love that question with a handful of hope it's it's it's the hope piece it's the generosity of humanity i you know spending time with so many incredible people these last three and a half four months i just i have so much hope for how amazing all of us can become and it's when we when we we really are at our best when we think of others first when we lead with service when we're waking up with the intention of helping another it's it's so inspiring and it just moves me to no end and then with the building a bridge you know when we're uncertain and we're scared it feels really good to find something you can be right about and it feels even better to make someone else wrong and when we get into right versus wrong disagreements or conversations or arguments everybody loses and we all know that you just go with the have you ever had the take out the trash argument with your spouse right that's a lose-lose for all of us but what i've really taken away from that is how incredible it can be to have conversations difficult conversations with another human being but have it from the premise of looking to find the humanity in each other and it's really is again we're at our best when we seek out the humanity you know when we can look across the table at somebody else and see ourselves in their eyes and vice versa and see that our experiences are similar to theirs our journeys are similar to theirs and it's it's a really beautiful thing so how can we seek out hope right now using social media since we can't all be in one room together yeah i love that question in social media we've all done those 30 second scrolls that turn into 30 minutes and it can it can be into a rabbit hole really quickly but what i would encourage you all to do is be proactive in your social media and what i mean by that is is if you want to have it be a positive happy place be proactive in creating that put post up that are going to be things about things that make you happy things that you love you share a favorite memory with a special someone or you know your last time that you went to somewhere and it made you smile or laugh you know little things often seem to be the biggest i know for me some of my most blissful moments during the last four months i've been playing with kittens you know it's a put if you have kittens put pictures of you and your kittens they make people happy they do they make me so happy and a lot of people are doing these challenges now and so in your mind what would be the perfect challenge for people to do to pull in their community during this time i think humanity we are at our best when we are loving ourselves and i think that the ultimate challenge that each of us should undertake is a challenge to learn how to love ourself that if we can fall in love with the person we see in the mirror every day and the funny thing is is most of us won't make eye contact we'll kind of look around ourselves so the challenge would be this it would be one first start with just holding eye contact with yourself for five to ten seconds in the mirror every day just look in there and as you do that acknowledge that person each of us no matter how challenging our life might be right now we've done something incredible whether it's how we showed up for our kids whether it was at one time we were there for a friend who was going through a hard time rather whether it was just getting up early when we were so unbelievably tired and so stressed out but we still got up and went to work just take five to ten seconds to acknowledge yourself is this a great way to enhance our life right now yeah i when we're looking at enhancing our life what we're really looking after right is emotion we're looking at how can i emotionally make my experience better right how can i feel more love more joy more happiness more fun so i would do the five to ten seconds of acknowledging yourself in the mirror and then if you want some real sprinkles on the sunday laugh at yourself literally sit there and do the fake laugh the hahahahaha and eventually if you do it you will start to really genuinely laugh at yourself because let's be real you look ridiculous laughing at yourself in the mirror but it's really fun another question i have for you too is during this time how can we unlock our greatness yeah i think humanity is at its greatest when we are defaulting to love i really do i think we are at our absolute best when we are choosing love and if everybody really wants to play in that space of what the greatest version of themselves is my challenge to each of us then would be to pose the question to ourselves of how can i love more today and whether that is just you know thinking kind thoughts at the talking heads on the news which we might sometimes not do that it might be making sure that we tell our kids or family members a friend just something we really appreciate about them it might just be going out your front door and waving across the street at your neighbor who you never wave at or acknowledge it for but how can i love today how can i love a little bit more and it really does make a profound difference based on all of these great i like to call them action items that you've given us how will this change the way that we move forward i think we will move forward we're going to move forward no matter what time is going to pass and if we move forward together that's where we're going to all win and in terms of actionable items and how is it going to improve if you are taking action to create community around love hope understanding compassion we you and everyone else will just have such a tremendous benefit from it thank you so much jesse for showing us how to unlock our greatness and discover what is possible for us during this very unique time absolutely thank you for having me and thank you for joining us on everybody with angela williamson viewers like you make this show possible stay in touch with us on social media good night and stay well [Music] you