Esa Kuloniemi made a podcast series about the social history of black music and noticed that almost nothing has changed in the lives of African Americans for over a hundred years.
Music journalist and a musician Esa Kuloniemi knows from decades of experience that the blues has always been shaped out of sadness, sung and played out of sadness. Still, he was really surprised last fall.
“After all my digging, it hit me hard again that almost nothing has changed in the lives of African-Americans for over a hundred years. It is still unequal, still unfair.”
Kuloniemi's key piece of evidence for this feeling is the music he plays, plays in the background and comments on in his new ten-part radio series for Yle Social history of black music.
“After much consideration, the name is exactly this and exactly in this form. So not a social history that strives for perfection social historyon the basis of which everyone can draw their own conclusions.”
Blues has always been Kuloniemi's own music, both as a long-term professional journalist and as a professional musician, but Social history of black music in the series it is just one of the plots.
Black music in the ten-hour series is equally gospel and jazz, rock'n'roll and rhythm & blues, soul and funk as well as rap and r&b, all of which Kuloniemi encourages you to listen to carefully, looking for different meanings. That is, what African-American authors tell about their own lives with music and what music unintentionally tells about the lives of African-Americans.
“That's exactly the social history in which the endless escape of one oppressed population from the cotton fields to the stranglehold of the police is intertwined,” Kuloniemi sums up.
In each thematic episode of the series – topics include sexuality, war, religion and resistance – he mixes different styles and eras. The oldest records are from a hundred years ago and the newest from last year, but some things just stay.
“It was again interesting to notice that almost every African-American artist who has established his position has commented on social inequality at some point on the album. It did Billie Holiday in 1939 and did so Beyonce in 2018. And it doesn't end with him.”
“Almost every established African-American artist has commented on social inequality on a record at some point. That's what Billie Holiday did in 1939 and that's what Beyoncé did in 2018. And it doesn't end with her,” says Esa Kuloniemi.
Esa Kuloniemi67, has been making radio programs since 1986, when he applied for a newspaper advertisement inspired by Yle Rock radio as an assistant. Kuloniemi's first weekly blues current affairs program was Howling wolves (1990–2003), whose name changed with the channel Blues minister.
< span>The blues minister is also a nickname that Kuloniemi got during his school days in Mikkeli, because he was a rhythm music enthusiast to the core – and even inclined to preach. In the English language, the word minister also means a priest or other spiritual adviser authorized by the community.
For blues listeners Blues ministerprogram gradually developed into a moment of devotion that unites the community. However, there is no longer a topical program where an expert regularly selects new domestic and foreign blues recordings. Blues minister was first shortened to a summer series last year and then stopped altogether – along with many other established music programs. The penultimate episode was completed in November, but it can still be listened to at Yle Areena, like fifteen other episodes.
Bluesministeri is a nickname that Kuloniemi, a rhythm music enthusiast, got during his school days in Mikkeli. It is also the name of his recently discontinued radio show.
“From the abundant feedback, I know that the end of the regularly delivered affairs program will, above all, cheer up the listeners. Of course I would have been ready to continue. Although I could just as well have given my seat to the new minister, because nothing lasts forever,” Kuloniemi emphasizes.
“Still, I have to say that I have been privileged. I have been able to do work on good terms, where I have been able to share things that are important to me. And to realize at the same time my side as a people's educator, which is suitable for Yle.”
Leaving the radio softens, of course Social history of black music series, in the work of which Kuloniemi has been able to use the knowledge he has accumulated by listening, performing and recording as well as editing, writing and translating. He has translated into Finnish the biographies of eight African-American stylists and a few other music books.
“I don't know if I will do any more radio shows. But this is quite an honorable ending for me, if it happens now. Someone could even talk about a will, not me.”
Social history of black music, Yle Areena and Yle Radio 1 on Tuesdays at 11:00.
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