STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
When San Francisco rock musician Chuck Prophet got his cancer diagnosis a couple of years ago, he had to cancel plans for a tour. And then he found a silver lining.
CHUCK PROPHET: I just did a lot more listening than I normally would. And I'm at a certain age. It was kind of cool to take a step back.
INSKEEP: During his treatment, Chuck Prophet had time to dive into different musical influences and obsessed over and then became an evangelist for a particular genre, the Latin American dance music known as cumbia. NPR's Chad Campbell reports on Prophet's new album.
CHAD CAMPBELL, BYLINE: I meet Chuck Prophet on a warm October morning at a donut shop in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco. We snag a table on their back patio.
PROPHET: Let's spread out a little bit. Let's try to get out of the sun.
CAMPBELL: On "Wake The Dead," Prophet collaborates with ¿Qiensave?, the cumbia band based about two hours south of here.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHUCK PROPHET AND ¿QIENSAVE?'S SONG, "WAKE THE DEAD")
PROPHET: I just really fell in love with them and started following them around a little bit whenever they came up here.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WAKE THE DEAD")
PROPHET: (Singing) Going to wake the dead, get them on their feet. Going to count our nickels like we're counting sheep.
And then eventually they said, hey, we got a house in Salinas. It's in the middle of the woods. You can come down and jam and turn up as loud as you want. And I said, I'll be there.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WAKE THE DEAD")
PROPHET: (Singing) We might have ourselves a picnic. We might end up on the moon. They might even model out of me.
CAMPBELL: Prophet says he'd drive down between chemo treatments for private jam sessions with the band. After a few months, they started planning the album. Then he experienced the real magic when they first played together in public at a local music festival.
PROPHET: I mean, ¿Qiensave? said, Chuck, you know, when we start playing the cumbia, all the brown people are going to come out of the food trucks. And I said, OK, guys, that's, you know - and lo and behold, that's what happened. Before too long, it was a total dance party. And that's when I thought, I don't know what's happening here, but I want more.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHUCK PROPHET AND ¿QIENSAVE?'S SONG, "WAKE THE DEAD")
CAMPBELL: Prophet loved the way things were sounding. He also had some nagging doubts.
PROPHET: I'm like is this working? Am I opening myself up for anything I should know about, cultural appropriation? Is what we're doing correct? Is this cumbia?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IN THE SHADOWS (FOR ELON)")
PROPHET: (Singing) Cumbia.
CAMPBELL: Cumbia originated in Colombia but blends styles from Africa, Europe and the Americas. It's heavy on guitars and accordions, with plenty of percussion. Two musicians who play on the new album also join us at the donut shop.
VICENTE RODRIGUEZ: I think it always goes back to the difference between appropriation and appreciation, because we all appreciate many different styles.
CAMPBELL: That's Vicente Rodriguez, Prophet's longtime percussionist. And here's bass player Joaquin Zamudio.
JOAQUIN ZAMUDIO: We all mix and match whatever we like, whatever our influences are. I feel like he respects that and keeps the conversation open.
CAMPBELL: For decades, Prophet was best known for mellow rock songs, like "Summertime Thing."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SUMMERTIME THING")
PROPHET: (Singing) There's a party next door, sounds like it's cooking. I poked my head over the wall, took a look in.
CAMPBELL: Prophet started exploring new genres during the pandemic lockdown. Then in 2022, he went in for a routine medical scan.
PROPHET: The doctor was leaning over, talking to me, and she said have you lost any weight lately? I was like, yeah, as a matter of fact, I have. Thanks for noticing (laughter). And she said, well, Charles, do you have a family history? And then I started thinking why are you asking me these questions? You know, where's all this going? Well, we found a mass in your lower intestine.
CAMPBELL: The test showed cancer in his lymph nodes, chest and abdomen. It was two torturous weeks before Prophet could get an oncology appointment.
PROPHET: So for 14 days, I didn't know if I'd be making a cumbia record or if I'd be doing much of anything. He said, OK, you have Stage 4 lymphoma. They usually come out swinging, you know? OK, six months of chemo couple of times a month seemed to do the trick.
CAMPBELL: Now he's in remission.
PROPHET: But I still live with it. On a good day, I don't even think about it. If it's changed anything, it's possible I'm a little bit nicer of a person (laughter).
CAMPBELL: Chuck Prophet has a new lease on life and a new batch of music. His cumbia-inspired album is titled "Wake The Dead."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IT'S A GOOD DAY TO BE ALIVE")
PROPHET: (Singing) It's a good day to walk on water, good day to swallow your pride, good day to call your mother. Oh, it's a good day to be alive. Yeah, it's a good day to be alive.
CAMPBELL: Chad Campbell, NPR News, San Francisco.
INSKEEP: It is a good day to call your mother. We're coming to you live this morning from Anthony's Italian Coffee & Chocolate House in South Philly.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
And we are having a great time all the more so because we have a musician here joining us this morning. It is pianist and singer-songwriter Khalil Amaru. He is the winner of NPR members station WXPN's 24-hour song challenge.
INSKEEP: Which means you get to be here in this room, not far from the chocolate pretzels and other things that they're selling here at Anthony's. Less than two weeks before the presidential election. Many people are tense, so help us out here. Can we just pause for a moment and just listen? Take it away, sir.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KHALIL AMARU: (Singing) Oh, June, trying to bloom, but the petals keep falling away. Oh, June, trying to bloom, hoping maybe this time you'll stay. Oh, June, trying to bloom, but the leaves, they just wither away. Oh, June, June, June, June. Oh, oh, oh.
(APPLAUSE) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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