Go Chineke!

 I have almost the same feeling about Black History Month as Tom Lehrer does about the USA's  National Brotherhood Week. It is rather tokenistic, like "taking the knee" before Premier League football matches. The Black Lives Matter movement has not increased the number of non-white football managers or administrators since the gesture started.

Still, the Month did have a good affect on BBC 4 last Sunday. First, the Chineke! orchestra played unjustly neglected works by Coleridge Taylor (also Radio 3's composer of the week this week) and Sowande. Then there was a repeat of the Lenny Henry/Suzy Klein survey of historical black classical composers and performers. There should be a follow-up to this, though. There was no mention of William Grant Still, who surely contributed to a distinctive American sound in the concert-hall and on movie sound tracks. He was a symphonist on his own account as well as an arranger for the Paul Whiteman orchestra. Contemporary composers like Laura Mvula, who ranges widely across the musical field should feature. There are others.

 In the meantime, Chineke thrives.