Black Music Sunday is a weekly series highlighting all things Black music, with over 280 stories covering performers, genres, history, and more, each featuring its own vibrant soundtrack. I hope you’ll find some familiar tunes and perhaps an introduction to something new.
As we approach Halloween next Saturday, it’s time to get our spooky musical playlists in order and there are plenty of tunes across genres from jazz, blues, R&B, and reggae that are about spooky and scary things!
It’s become a tradition here at Black Music Sunday for me to do a Halloween post. In case you missed them, check out stories and music from 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.
Readers of those stories contributed lots of music I hadn’t covered in the comments sections (thank you!) and I’m going to feature some of them in today’s post.
In the jazz genre, one of my all time favorites was rendered by Nina Simone, which was first recorded by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.
“I Put A Spell on You”:
The jazz vocalese trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross performing “Halloween Spooks” is something I play every year:
In the jazz instrumentalist genre, Joshua Redman recorded a haunting “Ghost”:
This ghostly instrumental appeared on Joshua Redman’s 2009 trio album Compass. His playing on the sax is thoroughly eerie; meanwhile, Larry Grenadier’s bass line sounds like it’s creeping through the darkness and Brian Blade’s sparse percussion sounds like creaking floorboards and suddenly slammed doors.
Along more spooky lines, the late, great Louis Armstrong’s scene from the 1936 film “Pennies from Heaven,” is a classic. Ricky Riccardi, at dippermouth.blogspot writes:
Armstrong gets one music number to himself in the film and it’s a great one. “The Skeleton in the Closet” was written by Arthur Johnston and Johnny Burke, the same two men wrote the rest of the Pennies From Heaven score. Filmed in California, Armstrong was seen leading a contingent of some of the finest west coast jazzmen, including trumpeter (and Armstrong disciple) Teddy Buckner, saxophonist Caughey Roberts, future Nat Cole bassist Wesley Prince and as already advertised, the grand reunion of Armstrong and Lionel Hampton.
Shifting to blues, Bessie Smith took us into a haunted house with her “Haunted House Blues”:
In the reggae vein, Ziggy Marley shares a good opinion of felines in his song “Black Cat”:
Black cat come visit me, I don’t care what people say
I saw your hazel eyes, sparkling in the moonlight
Black cat one day things will change, I’m gonna wipe away your bad name
my friend tells me you’re no good, and I say hey I’m not afraid
Black cat you’re beautiful, why does everybody run away
has anybody told you, I care
has anybody told you, I love you
In the R&B world, two songs stand out for me—Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” of course, and Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition.” But I’d rather play Stevie’s “Skeletons” and follow it up with Jackson’s mini-film, “Ghosts.”
Philly soul singers Blue Magic contributed “Born on Halloween”:
Queen Bey Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s “Ghost” and “Haunted,” released in 2013, aren’t usually associated with Halloween, but “Haunted” seems to fit into this exploration:
Since Halloween evokes ghosts and goblins we can all join Ray Parker Jr. and proclaim “I ain’t ‘fraid of no ghost” from 1984’s “Ghostbusters.”
In the hip hop vein, I’ll close with DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince singing their 1984 hit “A Nightmare on My Street”:
Please join me in the comments section below where I hope you’ll post your favorite spooky tunes.
