Of my Aunts and Uncles, it was my late Aunt Francis who was the party girl. She was the second oldest of my mother's sister's so she had seniority in the family. But she often seemed like the youngest because she had a playful, fun loving side. She was big boned woman with swinging hips, a boisterous manner of speaking and a raw, laugh. I used to spend summers in Newport News, Virginia with Aunt Francis and her three sons and two daughters, and it was always fun at her full house. She was married four times, a couple of times to colorful, larger than life men. I remember traveling to Buckrow Beach, the segregated amusement park down there, with Aunt Francis and the her kids. I remember going to Coney Island with her when she stayed with us in Brooklyn, and watching her enjoy frog legs and a beer. And I remember driving with her in Virginia and hearing Ray Charles' "Hit the Road Jack" blasting out of the car radio. Like my mother, Aunt Francis was a soul girl, who loved a good time and carried one around with her. I know she'll enjoy seeing her older sister and parents up in heaven. peace
More conversation about the Godfather of Soul from Nelson George, Vernon Gibbs and Alan Leeds from the Norwood Club on May 3, 2008, JB's 75th birthday. peace
This is a bit of me talking from a panel held at the Norwood Club in New York to celebrate the publication of the James Brown Reader and what would have been Brown's 75th birthday. With me are Vernon Gibbs, who has two pieces in the collection, and Alan Leeds who co-edited the book with me. More clips will be up loaded in the coming days.
James Browntown’s
Current mood: busy
Category: Music
For the past ten days or so I've been in two cities, Los Angeles and New York, but i've been living in James Browntown with The James Brown Reader. The last two Saturday nights l've been part of JB parties. In between I've done a book talk at Leimert Park's great Eso Won Books, done a talk about Brown in NY with two key contributors to the Reader (Alan Leeds and Vernon Gibbs), plus spoke briefly at a video tribute to Brown at the Apollo Theater that was packed with great clips of Brown performing from the mid-60s into the '80s. Watching the man dance, sing and lead his razor sharp band in clip after clip made me proud to, even in the small way of compiling this collection, to be part of the JB experience. If you are in New York May 20 I'll be speaking at the Hue-Man Experience Bookstore in Harlem, USA about Brown and the book, so come through. peace
Rolling Stones/Scorsese
Current mood: accomplished
Category: Music
In LA on a hot spring day there is no place better than the Arc Light Cinema. It has great screens, sound and selection. So I went and saw a film I otherwise wouldn't have -- Shine A Light, the Rolling Stones' doc directed by Martin Scorsese. I was perfectly happy to see the film on dvd but figured I couldn't pass it up at the Arc Light. No band has been has been as well documented on film as a live band than the Stones. They are been featured in a number of classic docs back when they were "the greatest rock & roll band in the world." So why see them as a bunch old men playing before a crowd of fat cats? I know Scorsese made 'The Last Waltz' and worked on the Woodstock film, but most of his more recent music work have been docs that tied together contemporary interviews with vintage concert footage (eg:Bob Dylan in 'Don't Look Back'.)
And, in fact, some of the best moments in Shine A Light are sections of brief clips of interviews with Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts and Keith Richards from the '60s and '70s. Looking at these cheeky, bored, sarcastic smooth skinned young men is mesmerizing, making you nostalgic and amazed that they survived all the drugs and the women and the hotel rooms. The faces that Scorsese focuses n today are worn, wrinkled and weary (Charlie Watts isn't self-conscious at all about expressing how tired he gets playing now.) Richards is sweet and quite vulnerable on stage, while Jagger is a cagey performer who never actually seems that engaged with what he's singing. Of course Jagger knows how to work a crowd, but there are only flashes of deep emotion. Still, it is fascinating to watch that famous face in close up, even when you can tell he's just doing another gig.
This is definitely the cleaned up Stones. When they sang "Brown Sugar" Jagger took out the line "just like a black girl should." When they performed "Sympathy for the Devil" the key line "I shouted who killed the Kennedys/ when after all it was you and me" was removed. The band did "Some Girls," the notorious title cut from an '80s album with the line "Black girls like to fuck all night," which they rarely do anymore. And no Mick didn't sing that line. Maybe they cleaned up their act because Bill Clinton was there and the concert was a benefit show. More likely these are the establishment Stones. If the famous doc 'Gimme Shelter' was a testament to the darkest at the end of the '60s, 'Shine A Light' is a slick, entertaining rock doc for the Slick Willie generation.
New Vintage Soul: Engene Blacknell and Baby Charles
Current mood: amorous
Category: Music
There's been a lot of good energy building around soul music this last few years. There have been s big breakthroughs, but there's a of good vibe on the underground front in terms of live shows and archival work. The last few weeks I've been listening to two records -- one belated debut and one that feels right on time. Eugene Blacknell has been dead some 18 years, yet his debut album, We Can't Take LIfe For Granted, on Luv 'N Haight records, is one of the best of 2007. Blacknell, a guitarist-bandleader in the Bay Area throughout the '60s and '70s, never put out an album while he was alive, but did cut a slew of local singles, a couple of which Beck sampled on his Guero album a few years back. The compilation is like a journey through soul/funk history as Blacknell records in a variety of black pop styles. It is an ace guitarist and he really shines on several funk jams that close the album. Also his air checks for local radio promos bring up back in time as deeply as do his guitar licks.
Though just released this month Baby Charles's self-titled debut on U.K. label Record Kicks, sounds like a blaxploitation soundtrack circa '72 with Charles in the vocal role that would have been played by Lynn Collins. The 13 tracks, most of which were recorded last year in England, are well played and have a live in the studio feel. Charles, who produced the record with the help of Tom Stephens, has a gutsy, confident tone and she writes tough, defiant songs that, unlike some young soul divas, don't sound self-conscious. I don't know any thing about Baby Charles background other that the sister can sing and has a strong musical grip on the era. If there is a soul revival going on, here and in Europe, Blacknell and Charles' records, though recorded at different times, share the same love of the good groove. peace
No Longer ’Brian.’ The Fever is My Own
Current mood: amorous
If you look at my friend’s section you’ll see ’Brian’ listed with the cover of the erotic novel, The Fever, as the art. Written by "Dark," the novel looks at the sexual hi-jinks of a young r&b singer and his manager as they travel America during the height of the new jack swing era. The book’s been out well over a year and can be purchased in trade and mass market paperback. I mention all this since i’ve finally admitting that I am Dark. I wrote ’The Fever’ as a way to capture the sexual frenzy I’ve seen unleashed by hit records and to tell some of the crazy stories I’ve heard about life on the road. I’ve written erotica before (the award winning ’It’s Never Too Late in New York’ has been collected in three different anthologies,) but this is the longest, nastiest tale I’ve written to date. So go to Brian’s MySpace page (why "Brian" is another long story) and check out The Fever. peace
Just finished a week of shooting a pilot for a VH1 Soul series called Soul Cities. We shot for a week in Los Angeles, hitting food and music spots around town to create a hybrid music/travel show. I bought vinyl albums at Amoeba Records, ate soul food at Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles, and shopped at the Slauson Super Mall (aka the swap meet.) I interviewed super producer/artist Babyface at the building he owns in Hollywood, veteran vocalist Angie Stone at Roscoe’s, and LA underground singer/trumpeter Aloe Blacc at the Little Temple Bar’s long running Root Down party. I was actually the host of the show, which is a first for me, both scary and exciting as hell. Definitely gave me a greater appreciation of what actors go through on a daily basis. I’m hoping that this show, if VH1 Soul picks it up, will be a visual extension of the writing I’ve been doing all these years. There are a few photos from this week’s shoot in the photo gallery. An LA Soul Playlist will be posted here on a bit of songs I love recorded by LA based acts or recorded by non-natives in the city of angels. peace
There are a lot of film books, but relatively few that work as social, as well as film, history. An exception to that rule is 'Pictures at a Revolution: Five Films and the Birth of the New Hollywood' by Mark Harris, who's an editor at Entertainment Weekly. The five Academy award nominees in 1967 were the ground breaking Bonnie & Clyde, starring and produced by Warren Beatty with the first truly gruesome shoot out in American film; The Graduate, the film that made Dustin Hoffman a star and altered what leading men looked like; two very different Sidney Poitier vehicles -- In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; and the bloated Hollywood musical Doctor Dolittle. The individual journey of each film is threaded through the upheaval in American society and the shifts in power happening in Hollywood vis a vis film ratings and corporate control. Harris does a great job of balancing these five stories and paints some particularly strong portraits of the men and women who made them. In '67 Poitier, who had already won an Academy Award a few years before for Lillies of the Field, was the number one box office star in America. That unprecedented achievement had two profound impacts: one, it established the viability of black stars for Hollywood and the economic clout of black film goers; two, the backlash against Poitier's too perfect, non-sexual characters scarred the actor and would lead him to directing and a kind of semi-retirement. We are in a very definite turning point in cinema history at this moment, so it is fascinating to see how it unfolded in the past and how great films are as much shaped by the times as they shape them. Pictures at a Revolution at 490 pages goes by too quickly. peace
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