I volunteer to play at Mayo Clinic. When there, I'm playing in the area where patients may be waiting for the doctor to see them. Nowadays, they are only allowed one other person to be with them as a visitor, because of COVID. About a week ago, a distinguished man came up to the piano, and thanked me for my playing. I'm not sure if he was a patient or visitor, but he appeared to be of African American descent. He asked me if there is anything I know how to play, that he may know. Well I had been working on a medley to play for Black History Month, since it was February, and so I thought I should play something that I was practicing. Once I started playing, he immediately recognized the songs, and started singing along. It was a great moment that we got to share together.

A great friend, Judy, who helped babysit my first kid, has also requested that I play something special for this month, and she told me how many of the old spirituals played in those days were played with just the black keys on the piano, so I should use this scale as well. In music this creates a pentatonic scale. The black keys on a piano keyboard comprise a G-flat major (or equivalently, F-sharp major) comprised of five keys. It is our final recording for February on my podcast, and this is my tribute to the ASNLH. In 1976, fifty years after the first celebration, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), started in part by Carter G. Woodson, used its influence to institutionalize the study and celebration of black history. I hope you enjoy it.