A Note for Angie, Roy, and D'Wayne

It was a rough week in Black music, y'all.

I met Angie Stone when she sang lead on "Seems You're Much Too Busy" with Vertical Hold.

I was 13 years old then.

I met Roy Ayers when Mary J. Blige sampled his, "Everybody Loves the Sunshine," on her "My Life." (Shout out and R.I.P. Chucky Thompson.)

I was 15 years old then (and angsty, so angsty).

I met D'Wayne Wiggins when he sang lead on "Whatever You Want" with Tony Toni Toné.

I was 11 years old then.

Ethnomusicologists, marketers, and neuroscientists know that the music of your youth and adolescence tends to be your music for life.

That's why the deaths of Angie Stone, Roy Ayers, and D'wayne Wiggins hit me with sadness and nostalgia.

Some fragmented thoughts follow because I'm sorry each of them is no longer here.

Angie Stone

Last week my bestie, Gené, and I went to go see Audra McDonald in Gypsy on Broadway. (It's phenomenal). When we got home, we started talking about Angie Stone and how horrible it is that she died in a tragic car accident. We sat at my kitchen island, drinking ginger tea, playing and singing Angie Stone songs for the next hour. We reminisced over the teenage and early 20s little women we were then while listening to songs like, "Everyday," "More than a Woman," and of course, "No More Rain (in This Cloud)." I don't know. Amid loss, it was yet another lovely moment that Angie's music created.

Roy Ayers

I claim Atlanta as my adult hometown. It's where I moved right after college, the first place I lived on my own. It's the first time I lived outside the state of Florida. It's the city where I had to navigate nightlife, dating, and all the joyful nonsense of being in your twenties. Thankfully, I fell into an Atlanta music scene that was neo-soul before there was neo-soul. This is the crew that invented FunkJazzKafé and made Yin Yang Cafe the place to be. This is the scene from which India Arie and Donnie grew. The folks who would host Erykah Badu or Anthony Hamilton when they came to town. And if that world had a patron saint, it would be Roy Ayers. That's the time when I fell deep into his world and repeatedly listened to his album with his band Virgin Ubiquity and his album with Fela Kuti. People in Atlanta revered Roy Ayers and brought him to town regularly to perform and I was there...always. When I moved into my first Brooklyn apartment, of course the first song I played was, "We Live in Brooklyn, Baby."

D'Wayne Wiggins

Let me tell you something. I loved Tony Toni Toné since 1988 when they dropped the "Little Walter" song and video. I was so thrown that they were using a song I knew from church, "Wade in the Water" (what I now know is a whole Negro Spiritual), in a R&B song. Then the video was wild and featured the comedian Sinbad, who starred as Walter Oakes in my favorite TV show, A Different World. And while D'Wayne was always essential to the three T's, his vocals took center stage on the 1991 quiet storm jam, "Whatever You Want." The song was simple, sincere, and soulful. The video matched the vibe and upped the earnestness. Them. On stool. Singing. Playing guitar. It's the kind of love song that reminds you what feels so good about being in love.

Honorable Mention: My other D’Wayne led jam, “Slow Wine.”

Each of these artists made music that helped me figure out who I wanted to be.

Each of these artists had soul and spirit and they shared themselves generously with us.

I send love to their families and wish Angie, Roy, and D'Wayne peaceful journeys.

Asé.