captioning sponsored by wnet sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, january 26: basketball great kobe bryant dies in a tragic accident. and in our signature segment:ns. award-winning vocalist shemekia copeland. next on "pbs newshour weeken" >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein family. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, weki believe care of tomorrow

can help you make the most of amutual of amernancial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporatn funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station fr viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at ,lincoln center in new yo hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasangood evening and thanks for joining us. kobe bryant, one of basketball'p greateyers, died tay in a helicopter crash in calabasas california, near los angeles1- bryant was 4ars-old. kobe bryant won five n.b.a. championships, two olympic gold medals and wasn 18-time all- star who played exclusively foro thangeles lakers in his 20ear career. he entered the n.b.a. draft straight out of high school in 1996, becoming the youngest player ever in the n.b.a. thr-lakers acquired the 17-y old bryant in a trade shortly

after charlotte drafted him. he teamed with shaquille o'neal titles in 2000, 2001 and 2002 and won two more titles with the lakers in 2009 and 2010. in 2003 a hotel employee accusea of raping her. he initially stated that it was consensual, anlater apologized r the incident. the accuser settled a civil suit against him. bryant retired in 2016 as the third-leading scorer in n.b.a. history with 33,643 points. yesterday, in philadelphia, lakers star lebron james scored 29 points and passed bryant on the scoring list.me after the ryant tweeted to james, "continuing to move therd game forwakingjames. much respect to my brother. in 2018, bryant won an oscar for the animated short fm "dear basketball" based on a letter he wrote about his retirement. four other people on board the helicopter were also killed in the crash today. the crash happened around 10:00 a.m. pacific time on a hillside about 30 miles northwest of

downtown los angeles it was a sikorsky s-76a.a. said helicopter. the other victims were not identified aof late this afternoon. bryant was married and had four daughters. we will have much more on this story on our website pbs.org/newshour tonight.me china's gove said today that it is working on diagnostic test kits to detect the coronavirus, but admitted that the ability of the virus to spread is getting stronger. country is enteri"crucialaid the stage" and announced 15 more deaths today. china has now risen to nearly in 2,000 and the outbreak has already killed 56 people.th u.s. consulate in the city of wuhan, where the outbreak e began cuating its staff and some private citizens on a charter flight.re wuhan and han a dozen other chinese cities remain in place for tens lions of bans people. in the u.s, at least two more casewere confirmed this weend-- both in southern california. both patients recently traveled

to the citeyof wuhan. re reportedly hospitalized and receiving medical treatment. two other u.s. cases were state and chicago. in washington in hong kong today, protesters set fire to a builng that was to be used as a quarantine facility during the coronavirus outbreak. the demonstrators-- wearing masks and dressed in black-- said they were angry te building was close to residential housing and a school. riot police arrested the protesters who also blocked roads leading to the building with brickand debris. hong kong has closed schools and banned travelers from the chinese province wherehe coronavirus outbreak began. in iraq, at least 22 anti- government protesters were wounded today in clashes with security forces. from the southern city of basra to the capital of baghdad, protesters; many of them university students, held up iraq's flag and chanted anti- iran and anti-american slogans. protesters want to overturn what they see as a corrupt ruling class and foreign interference from iran and the united states.

security forces fired tear gas and live bullets to disperse hundreds of demonstrators ind. bagh police set fires to protters' camps yesterday-- one day after shte cleric muqtada al-sad announced he would no longer support anti-government activists. turkish authorities said the death toll rose to at least 38 today after a 6.7 magnitude earkhquake struck eastern tuey friday night. st night, search teams working in freezing temperatures rescued more than people from the rubble, including a two-year old girl and her mother who were trapped for 28 hrs. 1,600 people were injured and there have been more tha400 aftershocks following friday's earthquake. ri5.0 earthquake hit puert yesterday afternoon. there was no damage reported immediaty, but officials said they are concerned continuing earthquakes in the island's southern regiomay destabilize more infrastructure. the eartuake was centered near the southern coastal town of

guayanilla, close to the epicenters of a sees of recent quakes. a 6.4 magnitudquake on january 7 killed one person and damaged hundreds of homes. a 5.9 aftershock hit the same area on january 11. many residents are still staying in emergency shelters throughout the area. for more on what's happening in the u.s. and around the world visit pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: the bls been around as a musical style for some 150 years, and like many art forms, it has its conventions, it's patterns and its subject matter. one contemporary artist who's steeped in blues tradition is award winning vocalist shemekia copeland, but she's also a musician with some new ideas about the blues as newshour weekend's, tom casciato reports♪ ♪ >> reporter: shemekia copeland might seem at first like an artist out of step with her generati. >> i grew up in the middle of harlem during e hip hop era,

so all my friends were listening to rap music, and that's where a lot of the rappers ce of age right there in my neighborhood. kool moe dee and big daddy kane. ♪ ♪ i like that stuff, but i was mostly in my room listening to old blues records. e was listening to ruth brown. ♪ i'm going h the morning train ♪ i'm going home on the morning train ♪ >> koko taylor. ♪ make love to crocodile i'm a woman ♪ >> etta james and ella fitzgerald, so i was obsessed with these, just voices, you know. ♪ in a bar down in texas in a poor part of town ♪ >> was about second grade when i children because i had this one

teacher that hosted a talent da and she wove all the kids get up and do something in front of the class. the would rap and, you know, comedians would do arm farts, and, of courl the girls, the girls would get up and they'd sing pretty love songs. i was watching this, and i'm like, welli can't sing pretty and i don't know how to rap so what am i going too? so, i get there finally, toward the end of the year, ico built up mage, and i got up there and i said: ♪ i'm a woman i can make love to a crocodile ♪ it was an old koko taylor song. i got myself in a lot of trouble. myndom had to come to school explain to the teacher that i was a blues singer. that's a she said. like that was gonna help my, my cause. i had to get the whole, "it's not appropriate to sing that in class," uh, speech. although my mom was very proud of me. >> reporter: her father had cause to be proud as well. he was the texas blues star

johnny copeland, his composition "ghetto child" is one shemekia still sings today. ♪ little boy standing on the corner ♪ somebodyse plon't you lend a hand ♪ bl actually, my first show i ever did out in was at e cotton club. i was about 10 years old. when my dad saw me sitting in the audience he st this song that he wrote for me, called "stingy." i've never recorded it, but, uh, the lyrics are "i got boy sweet he could be, the only flaw he got that i can see isng he too s stingy with the love for me. and so he started playing that song, and i knew it. i was like, oh my god, he's gonna make me come up and sing

in front of all these people. oh, lord. ( laughs ) and he did. >> reporter: blues fans are glad he did, because shemekia copeland has charted a cours pushing the blues toward new ground, though that wouldn't happen right awa thur first record seemed to deal ove gone wrong and the things that blues singers have been singing about for 100 years. right, yeah. >> reporter: was that by design, were you trying to be a traditionali for lack of a better word? >> no, i was just singing about what i knew about at the time. when you're 18 years old, it's just, you know, your little relationships and loss, you know, the loss of my father and life things. >> reporter: johnny copeland passed away in 1997. didn't get to see his daughter earn her first grammy nomination in 2001 at just 21 years old. and that was the album where you did a duet with ruth. >> yeah. >> reporter: and the song was about how all of us men are a ars. >> you could teln is lying if you see him move his lips,

yeah. >> hey shemekia, i hear you got >> yeah, ruth, i d. >> well, you don't sound too happy. >> well, think he's been lying to me. >> if he's a man you can be sure he's lying. but come on, tell ruth the truth. >> reporter: ruth brown is fol from the onlr star to notice copeland's talent and to work with her. others include dr. jcan, b.b. kingos santana and buddy guy. still, she is very much an artist of her generation, s working wigwriters to push blues lyrics into 21st century territory. for ample, in the song "ain' gonna be your tattoo," she took on the subject of date rape. ♪ just what i said wrong is anybody's guess ♪ but the bruise on my face was as blue as my dress ♪ >> and that's my way of helping

making it more contemporary with more contemporary lyrics. >> reporter: and when you sing rape, do you hear our like date fans? >> oh, god, i know i'm doing the right thing. ♪ ain't gonna be your tattoo end up faded and blue ♪ >> i remember standing- it's called city winery in chicago, and this woman came up to me and she said, "i had been or an abusive relationship many years and we had just goen into a physical altercation. i got in my r," and she said, "i heard that song and i never went back to him againi' she's cryingcrying. we're all a mess. i'm about to cry now, just thinking about it. and then she introduced me to her new husband and she said, "this is all because oyou," ani, i was done. i was like, oh my god. you know what i mean?

>> reporter: her latest release, "america's chi," can be heard as a kind of plea for people of all stripes to respect each other. ♪ free to be you and me ♪ >> everybody is so obsessed with people's differences. it's what makes america, america. >> reporter: you sing about a left wing liberal geek... >> married to a redneck freak, yeah. >> reporter: and that is only one of the many characters who n through that song. >> exactly. >> reporter: you sing about a transgender sugar daddy riding in a purple candy.ea >> >> reporter: there is really a lot of diversity in the co stry and you'ging about it. >> yeah, i am, i am. somebody's gotta do itre ♪ listen black and white ♪ black and white ♪ brown or tan every woman ♪ every woman child and man ♪ child and man rich or poor ♪ rich or poor gay and straight w

♪ain't got time for hate >> and this song is it's, it's about my son. i have a little boy. um, and his name is johnny and he is amazing. >> reporter: and named after your father? named after my father. i had him and my life changed. ♪ ♪ i think that i always wanted to talk about issues. uh, and i wanted to help people, but never really felt like i wanted to change anything never felt like i could change anything. ♪ we're all born then we die ♪as >> and when heorn, i felt like i wanted to in some small way try to change the worl and i still feel that y.om ♪in mansions and some in mud ♪ traditionalists who think you're

on territory you shouldn't be on?f >>urse, of course, there's always people that, you know,th are not- wish i would do, you know, remake koko taylor records for my entire life. but the one thing that koko taylor always told me is that she loved me because i'm doing my own thing. ♪ we ain't got time for hated ain't got time ♪ ain't got time ain't got time for hate ♪ '70s if you were aor r&but the singer, recording at philadelphia's sigma sound studio meant you were big time. the famed downtown space recorded some of the biggest hits of the era. but as newshour weekend's christopher booker recently learned, en though the studio has since closed, there maybe more sounds to come.

>> reporter: the faded and peeling bels do little to celebrate just how remarkable the.contents of these boxes sitting in a basement of drexel universityn downtown e philadelphia, they hold the most comprehensive records of the city's musical history: the recordings of sigma sound >> when you think about stax, motown, musc shoals, philly has to sit in there. >> reporter: toby seay is the director of drexel audio sound studios archive. the sigma >> they were churning out records that were hits, but they weren't just churning out recordan they were gful records. large string sections, horn sections, beautiful cal arrangements. they had a sound. they had an imprint that was identifiably philly. for me, i feel like it's ything teddy pendergrass. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪"mo

for the love oy," the o'jays, "you'll never find ♪ ♪" like mine," lls.d another love i mean, i think that one is the one that i land on as a great identifier for philly soul. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> reporter: founded in 1968 by sound engineer joe tarsia.un sigma so studios had two things going for it: tarsia's multi-track recording technology and a roster of unbelievablelo l studio musicians to record with.s thisere super duo kenny gamble and leon huff would produce an endless array of hits.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ what's here? what's here is, about 7,000 reels of tape on about 10-12 different formats. in these particular pes you have individual tracks side side on a piece of tape where you record individual pieces of the recording, so these aren't the final product. >> reporter: so on one track is e drums, one track is the saxophone? >> right, so you can listen to individual performances to individual musicians. that makes these to me, fairly intriguing for educational purposes because you arete stepping oneback into the recording process and you can dig into musically individual

players and you can look at production wise desions that were made. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: toby seay and his team have digitized tracks by many of the marquee names fr the archives. can we hear just his vocals? everyone from stevie wondeto david bowie...hose early version of his 1975 hit "young americans" sounds notably different from the version that was released. the piano is so different. ♪ ♪ >> yeah, very caribbean. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ that's just him singing lived. with the b this is like day one or two. ♪ ♪ you know they are learning the song.

any archive is full stories waiting to be had. there is stuff that's renowned. there's stuff that is not. there are lessons there, too. why did this succeed? why did this not? this is fantastic. why did no one ever hear this? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> reporter: one such recording from the archive comes from a band called the nat turner rebellion. recording 14 tracks between 1969 and 1972-- the band only released three singles. >> the nat turner rebellion project was one where-- here's this music that is good and i've never heard of them.ow you joe jefferson was the bandleader who went on to write ofton of hit records in the 70s and we have a loaterial

and there was never an album released. is what if what if we put together? we could actually make an album that nev actually existed. >> reporter: we might want to reach out to band members ife n find them. >> reporter: this is where professor marc offenbach's class comes in. for two year he and his students were dedicated to figuring out if they could release an album of nat tucoer rebellion ings on their student run mad dragon record label. >> you know, it's like following nsthe trail of who really t. you know, you open up these boxes, there's papers in there saying here the composers. here's the songwriter, here's the producer. he has the publishing company. but it's 5years old and things change hands. and even though we have the master tapes, this is all about getting mechanical rights from the publisher in order for us to license the music. >> reporter: in the case of nat turner rebellion, the class was able to find the publishers and strike a deal.la an march, nearly 50 years after the music recorded, the band's first andm," laugh to keep from crying," was

released. ♪ ♪ all 5,000 vinyl copies sold on the very first day, and the album was written about in the roing stone and profiled o n.p.r. >> the nat turner rebellion erturned out bigger and be than i ever thought it was going to be. >> reporter: so from businessrs ctive, how many nat turners are in this collection? >> i you know, i think i bet you there's a lot. i think we'd just like touched the tiof the iceberg, really. >> reporter: and seay and offenbach are only getting starte ♪ ♪ they're currently chasleg a second cion of tracks seay found in the archives-- this o from a group called choice four. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ >> this is pbs newshour weekend, sunday. >> sreenivasan: american students today are more comfortable than ever terms of race, claxualtities in orientation or gender-- but stereotypes continue. so as the 2020 census and election looms, newshour's own student reporting labs asked high schoolers across theun y to share their thoughts about stereotypes. test there new labels attached explores the stereotype that per vaids the lives of young people and how they are affected by them. >> the stereotype is something that you grow up believing about sody's race, religion and stuff like that. >> just something that you asme about somne else without really knowing.

>> it creates a fa sad that is not really me when we'll explore gender stereotypes trough the eye of sports. >> i ad kids inthe classroom who were talking about how women couldn't do any fighting spoort sports because they were too week. >> z they probably be call him gay or so b femoy. >> every male cheerleader goes through some stereotype. >> then we turn to racial stereotypes minority students say they expernce in schls. >>e people assume that i'm sometimes dumb, that is a common certificateio type against his pan-- hispanic people. >> because of my race, p tple assut i'm going to be loud and that i have grammar issues. >> and we'll hear from students in the lgbtq community. >> people like expect people tox dress orress themselve certain ways that are quite binding. we want to jst live our lives like everybody else. >> student reporting labs no labels attached series analyzeiv

precon notions students encounter and offer hope for overcoming stereotypes. >> nmatter who is around me, who is watching, who has something to say, it doesn't matter, i'm going to stay my ef. >> sreenivasan: that's all for this edition of "pbs newshour weekend." i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watchnig. have a goot. captioning sponsored by wnet captioneby media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.or >> pbs newshour weekend is madeb po by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein family. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblu we try to live in the moment,

to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. >> when it comes to wireless, consumer cellular gives its customers the choice. our no-contact plans give you as much or as little talk, text and data as you want.an d our u.s.-based customer service team is on-hanto help. to learn more, go to www.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation forad public bsting, a private corporation funded by the american people. t and by contributionsyour pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs. odehgers,tsodehgers,tstraits