It was a Love Supreme Friday on 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning, and hosts Paul B. and Buddy the God made good on that promise — setting aside the noise of a contentious primary week in favor of something more grounding: a conversation about music, community, and what North Omaha can still become.
The show opened with Paul B. acknowledging the tension swirling in the community’s online spaces. “There’s a lot of chatter going on on Friends of First Sky Omaha,” he said. “There’s a lot of back and forth, friends breaking up, all kinds of stuff happening over politics — and that just is like, okay, well, we have to make a decision. It’s going to be Love Supreme Friday today.” The mood, he noted, was set early by Buddy’s pre-show playlist. “Buddy had his motivational music on — Sounds of Blackness. And I was like, yeah, man. You hear that song, you can’t do nothing but hype up.”
From there, the hosts introduced a framing idea that would weave through the entire episode: the concept of the “secondary matrix.” Paul B. described it this way: “The primary matrix is us on this show, talking heads talking about the situation. The secondary matrix is when we got chat chimers and people going to the towers and really talking to folks… trying to raise some funds in order to make those things happen.” Buddy the God extended the thought to the bigger picture: “We got to do both. We got to build our own ecosystems and continue to do the things that we’re about to talk about. But in the long run, we do got to figure this out as far as a nation.”
Viewer Pops added a personal note from the chat that hit the theme perfectly: “I experienced my secondary matrix in junior high when I took algebra. I was gaining proficiency and noticed I was suddenly able to think outside the box on several different levels. Music the same.”
That segue into music felt entirely natural, because the episode’s centerpiece was an extended and deeply engaging conversation with Dana Murray, executive director and founder of the North Omaha Music Academy (NMA), located on the North 24th Street corridor. Murray, a musician and educator who grew up in South Omaha and spent eleven years in New York City before returning home, has been quietly building something transformational on “the Deuce” — and on this Friday morning, he laid out his full vision.
When asked what North 24th Street should be, Murray didn’t hesitate. “Really, the area that has the most history and the one that can claim ‘we are a cultural and arts district’ for real is the North 24th Street corridor,” he said. “As a district, you’d also need destinations: entertainment, restaurants, lounges. It would be great to have a hotel — with a hotel, now you can throw larger attractions, music festivals, conferences right in the community.” Viewer Pops echoed the sentiment from personal memory: “Artists like Fats Domino used to stay at your grandfather’s home when he came to town to perform. So yes, more infrastructure for the artist around the Deuce corridor would be a godsend.”
Murray also addressed a question he said comes up often — his roots in South Omaha rather than North. His answer reframed the conversation entirely. “If you’re black and you’re in Omaha, especially in the 70s and early 80s, North Omaha was the Mecca for us,” he said. “Everyone had a shared relationship with North Omaha.” He was direct about what he sees as a missed opportunity: “At every opportunity, we fail at taking advantage of showcasing our culture and highlighting the excellence of who we are.” His approach at NMA has been the opposite — an open invitation. “People told me that was going to be very hard. And people don’t have any problem coming from wherever they are in Omaha or Iowa to come down North 24th Street to hear jazz music.”
The academy’s mission, Murray explained, goes well beyond producing musicians. “We’re not only raising musicians, but more importantly we’re raising more critical thinking human beings,” he said, drawing a direct comparison to what Omaha Performing Arts means to downtown — not just culturally, but economically. “If you think of Omaha Performing Arts… as an economic vehicle that brings in $40 to $50 million in revenue every year — that’s what we’re trying to be for North Omaha.” Students learn live sound engineering, broadcasting, and podcasting alongside their instruments. “So it’s not just teaching them, ‘Oh, you can be this.’ No — you can be this right now.”
History is part of the curriculum too — but taught with intention. Murray spoke about the importance of giving young people context around local legends like Buddy Miles and Victor Lewis. “They’re not hearing someone say, ‘Oh, Buddy Miles is from here and he used to play with Jimi Hendrix.’ That doesn’t mean anything to young people — that’s in one ear and out the other.” What matters, he said, is the why. “If you give kids context, they connect the dots for themselves and they start to see the wins and the losses — not only in black people, but in the rest of the country. Now you’ve got a critical thinking human.”
On the subject of growth, Murray was unapologetic in his ambition. NMA is planning a capital campaign — the first phase totaling $20 million — with the goal of building a full campus. “Money is not our issue really in North Omaha,” he said. “It’s transformative ideas. What we have to sell in most black communities is our culture. Our culture is equity. Our brilliance, our artistic genius is equity. The sooner we look at it not as ‘oh, that’s a cool little music thing’ but as equity for us to build and monetize for our community, the better we’re going to be.”
The chat responded warmly throughout. Viewer Derek Higgins offered a simple but sincere: “Congrats, Dana, and what NMA is doing.” And viewer Senator KML put it most personally: “Thank you, Uncle Dana. You’re changing lives in big ways. We are the students.”
The show closed the way the best Friday mornings do — with a little joy mixed in. Viewer Aeros 402 shared news that stopped the chat mid-scroll: “On a love note — my only daughter gave birth to my second granddaughter. They are both new and good. I feel blessed.” It was exactly the kind of moment that makes Love Supreme Friday worth showing up for.
For those interested in joining the NMA community — whether as a student, supporter, or music instructor — Dana Murray can be reached at dmurray@northomahmusic.org, and his assistant Andrew Bailey at abailey@northomahmusic.org. As Murray put it, the instructors they seek must have one thing above all else: “the ability to inspire another human being.”
That, in a nutshell, is what 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning is about too. Tune in Monday — you won’t want to miss what’s next.
