Watching Sen. Barack Obama become the 44th and first Black American president galvanized my soul last night.  Just watching his family as well as Vice President Joe Biden’s grace the stage, sharing hugs and smiles, inspired me, forcing me to reckon with the idea that America is opening a new chapter to becoming the America it wants to me.

Being a music maniac, it also made me recontexualize a lot of my favorite R&B and jazz songs as they played in my mind, providing a new soundtrack for that historic site. Below are just a few classics that swirled in cranium.

1. John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”
2. Shalamar’s “A Night to Remember”
3. Donny Hathaway’s “Someday We’re All Be Free”
4. Harold Melvin & the Blue Note’s “Wake Up Everybody”
5. Curtis Mayfield’s “Power to the People”
6. The Jackson’s “Can You Feel It”
7. Duke Ellington’s “Black, Brown & Beige  Suite”
8. The Staple Singers’ “I’ll Take You There”
9. Funkadelic’s “One Nation Under a Groove”
10. The O’Jay’s “Love Train”
11. Prince’s “Uptown”
12. Earth, Wind & Fire”s “Mighty Mighty”
13. Gary Bartz’s “I’ve Known Rivers”
14. The Beatles’ “Come Together”
15. Max Roach’s “We Insist – Freedom Now Suite”

Now add your favorite classics to the list.

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