[music]

Kousha Navidar: This is All Of It. I'm Kousha Navidar, filling in for Alison Stewart. The final day to submit to the Public Song Project is May 12th, which means you've still got a couple of weeks to record a song based on work in the public domain. Your song can be a cover or it could be an adaptation of a novel, a poem, even a film. As long as it's based on the public domain, it's fair game.

If you're looking for inspiration and more resources, check out our website. We're at wnyc.org/publicsongproject. We've got links to help you explore the public domain. There are instructions on how to use your local library to research and record a song. Also, there's a very special playlist of songs sent in by friends of WNYC like They Might Be Giants, Rhiannon Giddens. There's also Valerie June.

Once you send your song in, here's what we'll do. First, we'll compile it into a big playlist of all the submissions, and then we'll select a few favorites to be featured on WNYC. In fact, some submitters will also get to perform at our just-announced event that's at Lincoln Center on July 20th.

The contributors who get to be featured on-air will be picked like last year by a panel of judges. They include some in-house names like John Schaefer of New Sounds and Paul Cavalconte of New Standards, as well as Lincoln Center Chief Artistic Officer Shanta Thake. Another one of our judges is my next guest, Rochelle Kwan, a DJ and oral history educator behind a cool project called Chinatown Records.

Chinatown Records started with a music collection from Kwan's father. It's grown into an archive that spans Chinese music and more from the 1920s all the way up to the 2000s. As part of the project, Kwan leads workshops and what they call sonic family histories. They use the music to dive into personal connections. Using music to dive into personal connections, that's also a great place to start if you're still thinking of a song to record for the Public Song Project.

Listeners, to get you in the mindset, we'd love if you would call in to tell us about a song that means a lot to you or reminds you of a loved one. It could be a song you inherited in a record collection or one you heard around the house growing up or one that you associate with a specific experience shared with another person. It doesn't have to be in the public domain, although if it is, get to record it here for the Public Song Project already because you are running out of time. [chuckles]

Any song that makes you think of someone you love, we want to hear it right now. Give us a call. We're at 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692. Here now to talk about Chinatown Records and how she approaches this kind of musical storytelling is Rochelle Kwan. Rochelle, welcome to WNYC.

Rochelle Kwan: Hi. Thank you so much for having me today.

Kousha Navidar: It's great to have you here. Your dad's record collection, the seeds of Chinatown Records, what was in the collection?

Rochelle Kwan: When I first found the collection-- I know you talked a little bit about it starting with my dad, but I think the story of how I found it is really funny too. I'm originally from the Bay Area in California. A few days before moving here to New York, I dropped something between the coffee table and our couch and I moved it for the very first time in this home that I grew up in and then found cases of records underneath the coffee table that I'd never seen in the 20-plus years that I'd lived there.

Then I was like, "Hey, dad, are these records?" He's like, "Yes, I didn't think that you'd be interested in them because they're all Chinese music. I didn't know that you liked Chinese music." Then as we were digging through them, I realized it was a lot of the music that I grew up hearing in our living room. We would have his friends over to sing karaoke parties and then in the car, all of these songs that I didn't really recognize until we started talking about them. It's a lot of my dad's era. He's from Hong Kong. It's like '80s. Very, very '80s Hong Kong.

[laughter]

Kousha Navidar: What was special to you about getting those records from your dad?

Rochelle Kwan: I guess I'd never thought about that music all as something that was so important to me until I saw them, until I heard them again, and I realized that they were so deeply embedded in my bones. I knew the voices. One of the people that I grew up hearing in my home was the singer called George Lam or Lam Tsz-Cheung. He was the person that I was always hearing on our way to school, at my aunt's house, in the karaoke parties. I love music. I've always collected records, but never really thought about Chinese records and Chinese music until I found these ones from my dad.

Kousha Navidar: Listeners, if you're just joining us, we're talking to Rochelle Kwan who is the creator of Chinatown Records, and we're talking about songs that mean a lot to you specifically because they remind you of somebody else. If there's a song in your heart like that, give us a call, send us a text. We're at 212-433-9692. That's 212-433-WNYC. Rochelle, your archive spans the 1920s to the 2000s. What's a real gem you came across in one of your collections? Something that was interesting either for historical reasons or just because it was sentimental.

Rochelle Kwan: I think it was from my dad's collection. It's this album from the Queen of Cantopop in Hong Kong, Mui Yim-fong or Anita Mui. I think she has at least three Madonna covers on there. [chuckles] It's so funny because when I will play that record, it reminds me of my dad. I remember hearing all of these songs growing up. I play them at block parties.

People come up and talk about how they used to listen to this song, but then we're also at the same time creating these new memories together, stacking these memories on top of these songs where we're thinking about these past memories from my dad, but then now it's mine and my sister's favorite album because I play it all the time and now it's a lot of people's favorite album at these Chinatown block parties. Her cover of Crazy for You is always our closing song. Once it comes on, everyone's like, "Okay, it's time to go home."

Kousha Navidar: [chuckles] We pulled a clip of a song from a mix that you made a few years ago. This is a Chinese language cover of Proud Mary. Tee up the song. What do you like about it? How does it fit into the mix?

Rochelle Kwan: I love this song because whenever I play this one out and about, people are like, "Oh, I know this song." Then once she starts singing, they're like, "Wait, do I know this song?" I'm like, "Yes, you do know this song. It's just in a different language." I love covers.

Kousha Navidar: Let's hear a little bit of it right now.

[MUSIC - Proud Mary, Chinese Cover]

Kousha Navidar: Listeners, we're here with Rochelle Kwan from Chinatown Records, and we're talking about music that reminds you of somebody that is important in your life. If you have a song like that, give us a call, 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692. We've got our first caller, Michael in White Plains. Hey, Michael. How are you doing? Welcome to the show.

Michael: I'm doing well, thank you. How are you?

Kousha Navidar: Good, thanks. What's your story?

Michael: My dad was a child of the Depression, and when he was a toddler or a small child, his dad used to sing to him the song Big Rock Candy Mountain, a little hobo song.

[MUSIC - Big Rock Candy Mountain]

On a sunny day

In the month of May

He sang it to me as a child, growing up in the '60s and '70s. Now I sing it to my sons who are teenagers. We have an amazing love of music in my family. We're all musicians. My sons and I have a band together. Music is just such a central part of our life. We're always singing songs, playing music. Maybe my dad imparted that to me and gave me that gift, and it's a very special thing for me.

Kousha Navidar: Michael, that's so wonderful. Thank you for sharing that. I want to tell you that we've been looking this up. In the meantime, we believe that Big Rock Candy Mountain is in the public domain if you or anyone wants to record it for the Public Song Project. The producers pulled a little bit of magic. We have a little bit of Big Rock Candy Mountain ready for you. Here it is.

[MUSIC - Big Rock Candy Mountain]

One evening as the sun went down

And the jungle fire was burning

Down the track came a hobo hikin'

And he said, "Boys, I'm not turning

I'm headed for a land that's far away Beside the--

Kousha Navidar: Big shout out to our tech board op, Juliana Fonda, who did all of the work to get that ready. Michael, thank you again so much for that call. Rochelle, we already heard from one caller. I'm sure we're going to hear from more. I'm wondering how you get these albums for your collection, and if somebody wants to give something to you, can they do that?

Rochelle Kwan: Yes. It's a whole family affair. Michael, I hope that you cover it maybe with your teenage sons. The whole project started because I have a pretty big mouth. I was in Chinatown having lunch with my neighbor and I told him about inheriting my dad's collection, and he was like, "Oh, you should take my grandfather's collection. You should also take this turntable, this mixer, and now you can DJ for everyone."

I was like, "Oh, is that how everyone becomes a DJ?" As word spread, people from the neighborhood told their friends, and then their friends of friends would just randomly reach out to me. They'll DM me, they'll email me, they'll find me in Chinatown at events, and they're just like, "Oh, I have my grandfather's collection, I have my mom's collection, I have my collection, can you take it?" If you can find your way to me, you can absolutely share your collection with me. Even just in the past month, I've inherited six collections. [chuckles]

Kousha Navidar: Wow.

Rochelle Kwan: Now it's probably up to about 30 family collections. All of them span Chinese music. They're mostly based in Chinatown here in New York but also in San Francisco, and it's starting to in Seattle too. It's so cool to see each individual collection because each collection tells, not only the story of this music, but the families that had these collections. I like to think about Chinatown Records a little playfully.

Chinatown Records, obviously, we're dealing with vinyl records, but it's also a historical record of our families. It's also to record. It's to actively participate in recording these histories and thinking about, how does this music, how do our personal archives, how are those part of these larger histories? Like your last guest from the Schomburg, they were talking about how to look into your own archives and see those as important stories as part of this larger cultural fabric. That's what Chinatown Records is really about. It's not only about Chinese people. Not only Chinese people listen to music and have memories about them.

We can all start with our families. We can start with the music that we grew up with, the music that we love, and that's a way for us to start these conversations with people that maybe we never really had that bridge to start those conversations before. That's exactly what happened with my dad.

Kousha Navidar: It's so perfect you bring that up because we're going to take a quick break, but when we come back, we're going to go into our own anthologies and we're going to show some songs that mean a lot to us here on the All Of It team. We're going to take some more of your calls. We're going to talk more about Chinatown Records. This is All Of It. We'll be right back after this. Stay with us.

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Kousha Navidar: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Kousha Navidar, in for Alison Stewart, and we're talking about music. We're here with Rochelle Kwan from Chinatown Records, and we're talking about songs that remind you of somebody that you love, somebody that you remember. It's connected. We've been talking with Rochelle about how records from her dad's collection started this project of taking in records that specifically look at your own anthology. Rochelle, we're hearing from listeners-- and listeners, quick plug, if you have a song that reminds you of somebody specifically, we're taking your calls right now.

We heard from Michael on the last segment talking about a song that his dad left him. We want to hear from you. Give us a call, send us a text, 212-433-9692. Rochelle, I want to talk about sonic family histories, which is part of the core elements of Chinatown Records. In fact, I want to start by playing another clip from the mix that you sent over. This one features you and your dad. Can you quickly say what's the music we're going to hear in this clip?

Rochelle Kwan: This is actually-- In Hong Kong, there was a lot of soundtrack music during the '50s, '60s, '70s. This is from one of those albums that is just film soundtrack backing music.

Kousha Navidar: Let's hear it.

[mixtape music]

Kwan's Dad: I do a mix with a song that I like in a cassette tape. [unintelligible 00:16:26].

Rochelle Kwan: So you made your own mixtape?

Kwan's Dad: Yes, I did. I still have a collection of it. That's it. Then I have everything that I like.

[end of mixtape music]

Kousha Navidar: Listeners, we're talking to Rochelle Kwan from Chinatown Records, and we're taking your calls about songs that remind you of somebody in your life. Give us a call, send us a text, 212-433-9692. We got another caller here, Rochelle. This is Kristen in Chappaqua. Hey, Kristen, welcome to the show.

Kristen: Hi, how are you doing? Thanks for having me.

Kousha Navidar: Absolutely.

Kristen: I have a song that I'm not sure anybody else would have ever heard of this song, but I would be interested to hear if somebody has. It's called Vigilante Man, and it's by a band called Nazareth from the '70s. It was an album called Razamanaz that my brother played over and over and over again while we were on a family ski holiday in Austria. I remember he was long-haired.

Listening to this music, and I was probably a kid of six or seven, and I thought he was the coolest guy ever. Anyway, I lost him at the beginning of the pandemic, and every time I play this song, it's like an anthem to him.

Kousha Navidar: Oh, Kristen, thank you so much for sharing that. I'm sorry about your loss, and what a wonderful song and gift to have. Rochelle, they say that smells really stay with us. I think that sounds really stay with us too. Has your own work kind of echoed what Kristen was talking about, having a song that reminds you of people that have passed?

Rochelle Kwan: Yes. Even for when I got back into this Chinese music, I haven't listened to this in 20 years probably, but then the moment that the songs come on, I feel like I've just jumped into this portal. It's like I go back in time and I remember when I was six or seven years old in the car on my way to school hearing this song. I didn't realize how deeply embedded into my body the song was until I heard it again.

I think that's really what Chinatown Records is about because I'm not-- The DJing is part of the sonic family histories. The way that I DJ is I talk to my family members, I talk to the people who give me their collections, I talk to the people who come to when I DJ. If I play a song and people come up and they're like, "Oh my God, I love this song. It reminds me of my mom," I'm going to keep playing that song whenever I go out to DJ. These songs are really meant for us to think about, how do these songs actually take us back in time to remember our loved ones?

Kousha Navidar: We've got a text that I want to read. It says, "Let's Do The Twist by Chubby Checker and Let's Do The Twist Again, also by Chubby Checker. Great memories of family gatherings with music and dancing always a part and especially my cousin Jamesy, a great dancer who, for me, will always be the 'coolest guy on earth.'" Joanne from Saugerties, New York, originally from the Bronx. Shout out to Chubby Checker. Shout out to Joanne. Thank you so much.

Rochelle Kwan: Oh, I love that.

Kousha Navidar: Before this segment, we, the producers of All of It, got together and shared some of our own. I want to highlight one that our producer L. Malik Anderson said for a song that reminds them of family. This is from L. Malik. Maze featuring Frankie Beverly is such a beloved R&B band among Milwaukeeans, alongside Earth, Wind & Fire, and singer Charlie Wilson, of course.

"When I was younger, my dad would play their song Happy Feelin's over and over again, but I was so young that I didn't know the words, so I thought they were saying Happy Phyllis, which is my mom's name, and I thought my dad liked it because it was about my mom." L. Malik, thank you for that contribution. Here's Happy Feelin's.

[MUSIC - Maze: Happy Feelin's]

Kousha Navidar: Shout out to our teammate, L. Malik, for bringing that to our attention. We're here with Rochelle Kwan from Chinatown Records. We're talking about music that reminds you of people you love, people in your life. What's that song? Give us a call, 212-433-9692, or you can hit us up on social. We're @allofitwnyc. In fact, we just got a tweet from Paula Poundstone that reads, "I used to sing Brand New Key to my babies' first hours. What I wouldn't give to be back there? Is your station in charge of time travel?"

Well, I guess right now we kind of are because we're bringing people back. That's wonderful. Thank you, Paula Poundstone, for that. We've also got Elaine in Long Island. Hey, Elaine, welcome to the show.

Elaine: Hey, it's nice to be here. Thank you. Can you hear me?

Kousha Navidar: Yes, absolutely.

Elaine: Okay, great. When my mother passed away in 2010, my sister and I went into a restaurant and could not believe the song that we were hearing was my mother's favorite song. It's something from a very long time ago because she grew up in the 1930s. The name of the song was Stardust, and it was by someone named Hoagy Carmichael. I'm thinking that he was one of those typical-era band leaders from that time. She was a singer, and she loved that song. To walk into a restaurant and hear it on the loudspeaker was pretty amazing, just the fact that she had just passed.

Kousha Navidar: Elaine, thank you so much for that. We've also got Grace in Long Island. Hi, Grace, welcome to the show.

Grace: Hi. Can you hear me all right?

Kousha Navidar: Yes. Hi.

Grace: Hi. It's so fascinating hearing all of these songs about moms and dads. Mine is one as well. I'm originally from India. A couple of years ago, my dad was really ill and was in the ICU, and there was this doctor who was taking care of him. She wanted to try music therapy in the hospital, and I was visiting when she brought this guitarist to my dad's bedside in the ICU to sing a song.

In India, there are lots of, lots of languages, so the guitarist turned to me and asked me, "What language should I sing in?" I said Tamil, which was the language my parents spoke. He said, "I know one Tamil song." He started singing this song, which was one of my favorites. The minute he started singing it, my dad opened his eyes and he started smiling from ear to ear. It was such a-- I can visualize it so vividly even now.

We were all worried that we would lose him, and to see him feel that way-- Then right after, he said, "Where is mommy? She really likes this song." Not only was this song so important for me because it reminds me of that moment, but it also-- Oh my goodness. It also reflected how important their relationship was. In as ill as he was feeling, all he was looking for was my mom. It was a very, very special song. I would say what the song is, but I don't know how to translate it well.

Kousha Navidar: I was going to ask you, but it's okay. I think the story is enough, Grace. Thank you so much. Rochelle and I are here right now just nodding our heads.

Rochelle Kwan: Teary-eyed.

Kousha Navidar: Teary-eyed, yes, both of us, especially me. Grace, thank you so much for that contribution. I want to get in the time we have left to one more piece from Chinatown Records, Rochelle. I want to play another clip. This one features your popo, your grandmother. You're speaking Cantonese in it. Just quickly, can you give us a sense of what you're saying to each other in this clip?

Rochelle Kwan: Yes. This is actually one of my favorite clips because this is the first time that I ever learned about my grandma's life before she became my grandma. She talked about dancing in Hong Kong.

Kousha Navidar: Wonderful. Let's hear it.

[mixtape music]

Kousha Navidar: You talked about the '80s being your dad's collection. This sounded a little '70s to me, which I really liked. You're going to be, Rochelle, one of the judges for the Public Song Project. To go out of this segment, I want to share producer Simon Close's pick for a song with some family significance. This song was actually recorded by the band Friko for the Public Song Project. It's called Deep In My Heart, and it's originally from the operetta The Student Prince.

Simon picked it because he shared this recording in an interview on Morning Edition a few weeks ago. His grandmother was listening to the interview and emailed him to say that she remembered watching the 1954 film version of The Student Prince with his grandfather, who passed away a couple of years ago, sadly. His grandfather apparently loved that music. Here it is.

[MUSIC - Friko: Deep In My Heart]

Deep in my heart, dear

I have a dream of you

Fashioned of starlight

Kousha Navidar: Simon, thank you so much for that story and for this and for all of your work on the Public Song Project. Rochelle, I want to make sure, if folks can get in touch with you to give you some records, what can they do?

Rochelle Kwan: They can find me on my website, rochellehkwan.com, and you can find me DJing in Chinatown all summer long with Think!Chinatown. We'll be throwing our Chinatown block parties. We've got a great lineup of DJs.

Kousha Navidar: Wonderful. Rochelle Kwan is a DJ, cultural organizer, and oral historian behind Chinatown Records. Rochelle, thank you so much for joining us.

Rochelle Kwan: Thanks for having me.

Kousha Navidar: Listeners, if all these songs and memories have gotten you feeling a certain way, consider contributing to the Public Song Project. If there is a song in the public domain that reminds you of a loved one, record a version of it and tell us about why the song and the person matters to you. You have until May 12th to contribute to the Public Song Project. Go to wnyc.org/publicsongproject for more info.

Coming up next after the break, there will be more All Of It on the way, a live performance by jazz musician Shabaka Hutchings. Stay with us. See you soon.

 

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