Najee’s session work for Prince’s The Rainbow Children LP exposed the musician to another side of the Purple One’s mystique. During a recording session, Prince – engineering the session – stopped to entertain four children who interrupted them. On another occasion, the prolific artist and entertainer opened a $10,000 account for one of the New Power Generation’s drummers, who was expecting a second child. Prince even purchased a home for the drummer and his family after he left the band. Quite impressed by Prince’s humanitarian efforts, Najee wants the public to know that side of His Royal Badness. “I saw the person aside from the superstar. Those are the stories neither nobody talks about nor nobody knows. Those are the stories I think should be told about him,” says Najee.

While on tour, Najee sat in on Prince inviting many popular artists backstage at his shows. The legend – who changed his name to ...o his name – would often host workshops to encourage performers to take ownership of their intellectual property.

“[Prince] would always encourage artists to get into the habit of owning their masters. He was adamant about artists having rights to the things they create to give to the world,” says Najee.

The inspired saxophonist adds that he hired Prince’s attorney when his contract was disputed with Capitol/EMI. “He was the reason I went in that direction. Ever since that time, every album I’ve ever done, we license it. I own the masters,” says Najee.

http://theburtonwire.com/2014/01/05/education/jazz-musician-najee-talks-new-music-the-other-side-of-prince/

wow that a lovely article, I am really not surprised though. Lets now look forward to the usual suspects over analysing this & try to rip Prince apart...in 3...2....1...!

They're busy in another thread deconstructing his successful career!

Nice article btw. Great to hear some different stories. And always keen to check out other musicians I've never heard of...even though I love TRC...ooops.

A class act!!

[Edited 1/7/14 7:09am]

Awesome!

No, wait...Prince is only nice to young, pretty females. He treats everyone else like shit. Remember?

Byron said:

No, wait...Prince is only nice to young, pretty females. He treats everyone else like shit. Remember?

Well, I am pretty sure he wasn't nice to Sassey T. At least, that's what she's said about 10,000 times here and on Lipstick Alley. And woe be to those who don't believe her!

Byron said:

No, wait...Prince is only nice to young, pretty females. He treats everyone else like shit. Remember?

like John Blackwell?

Byron said:

Nice to hear about that side of him. It often gets buried.

Thats cool..

Yes, Prince can be kind and generous. But he can be a jerk too. Remember, he's a Gemini so there's at least two people inside him.

akossofi said:

Yes, Prince can be kind and generous. But he can be a jerk too. Remember, he's a Gemini so there's at least two people inside him.

You just described every human being who has ever lived ..

God bless Prince....

Jamzone333 said:

God bless Prince....

Co-sign.

It's kinda says something about the org when this thread has so few responses. Or maybe it says something about the nature of message boards. Or about creamed spinach.

Everybody has a kinder, softer side y should Prince b any different.

Byron said:

It's kinda says something about the org when this thread has so few responses. Or maybe it says something about the nature of message boards. Or about creamed spinach.

I had not responded because this is not a surprise - there have been many stories like this over the years. If some people choose to ignore that info and focus/remember only the negative and think he's the devil incarnate, then they will see only what they choose to see.

I agree with you that he's human like the rest of us, sometimes doing good and sometimes bad, and we don't know everything about him -- actually, we don't know anything about him (as a person) unless we know him personally, which the vast majority of us don't.

But it's always nice someone goes out of their way to say something nice about P. Good for him!

funkyhead said:

wow that a lovely article, I am really not surprised though. Lets now look forward to the usual suspects over analysing this & try to rip Prince apart...in 3...2....1...!

"He's all about the money..." Obviously he's getting a hefty tax write-off for buying his drummer

a new house.

Truth is, many of us have always known this about Prince.

When I was a kid he did a concert in Minnesota for a school of hearing-impaired children

(with someone doing sign language). I doubt this got much national or

international press - but living my summers in MN, I read about it and kept the article for a long time.

This side of Prince is rarely publicized, which is the way it should be. Volunteering and performing charitable deeds is not something to flaunt but, is it's own reward. Volunteer and you'll feel the love of helping others. There is nothing like it.

he's a good boy at heart i'm sure of that.

XNY said:

Volunteer and you'll feel the love of helping others. There is nothing like it.

So, so true ...

yep. he seems like a nice guy when he isn't stomping on other people's starfishes*

*joke

[Edited 1/17/14 14:15pm]

XNY said:

funkyhead said:

wow that a lovely article, I am really not surprised though. Lets now look forward to the usual suspects over analysing this & try to rip Prince apart...in 3...2....1...!

"He's all about the money..." Obviously he's getting a hefty tax write-off for buying his drummer

a new house.

Truth is, many of us have always known this about Prince.

When I was a kid he did a concert in Minnesota for a school of hearing-impaired children

(with someone doing sign language). I doubt this got much national or

international press - but living my summers in MN, I read about it and kept the article for a long time.

This side of Prince is rarely publicized, which is the way it should be. Volunteering and performing charitable deeds is not something to flaunt but, is it's own reward. Volunteer and you'll feel the love of helping others. There is nothing like it.

It must have gotten some national press, because I lived in southern Missouri and knew about it. But I'm with all the people who hadn't commented because it was just another example of something I already knew--and I didn't have much to add. Yep, Prince can do nice things--and fairly regularly does.

I'm glad the original post was made--but I didn't expect much comment on it. I'm not sure threads have to have tons of responses to be useful or worthwhile.

EddieC said:

XNY said:

"He's all about the money..." Obviously he's getting a hefty tax write-off for buying his drummer

a new house.

Truth is, many of us have always known this about Prince.

When I was a kid he did a concert in Minnesota for a school of hearing-impaired children

(with someone doing sign language). I doubt this got much national or

international press - but living my summers in MN, I read about it and kept the article for a long time.

This side of Prince is rarely publicized, which is the way it should be. Volunteering and performing charitable deeds is not something to flaunt but, is it's own reward. Volunteer and you'll feel the love of helping others. There is nothing like it.

It must have gotten some national press, because I lived in southern Missouri and knew about it. But I'm with all the people who hadn't commented because it was just another example of something I already knew--and I didn't have much to add. Yep, Prince can do nice things--and fairly regularly does.

I'm glad the original post was made--but I didn't expect much comment on it. I'm not sure threads have to have tons of responses to be useful or worthwhile.

If the thread drops off the first page within a few hours then it's not really all that useful, though lol...so responses do help threads become more "useful or worthwhile".

The threads with the most responses aren't the ones where something "new" or unknown about Prince is intruduced...they are the ones in which people feel the strongest need to comment. They are also the ones in which troll-ish comments start popping up (you notice which org members have not commented on this thread lol). Generally, those are the threads that have a rather negative slant/viewpoint. A thread could be created talking about some negative story from 20 years ago concerning Prince, Wendy and Lisa, and it would run 30 pages, minimum, even if everyone knew about the story when it first happened.

That's the nature of the org...or of message boards in general. Or, again, of creamed spinach.

[Edited 1/18/14 9:33am]

Byron said:

EddieC said:

It must have gotten some national press, because I lived in southern Missouri and knew about it. But I'm with all the people who hadn't commented because it was just another example of something I already knew--and I didn't have much to add. Yep, Prince can do nice things--and fairly regularly does.

I'm glad the original post was made--but I didn't expect much comment on it. I'm not sure threads have to have tons of responses to be useful or worthwhile.

If the thread drops off the first page within a few hours then it's not really all that useful, though lol...so responses do help threads become more "useful or worthwhile".

The threads with the most responses aren't the ones where something "new" or unknown about Prince is intruduced...they are the ones in which people feel the strongest need to comment. They are also the ones in which troll-ish comments start popping up (you notice which org members have not commented on this thread lol). Generally, those are the threads that have a rather negative slant/viewpoint. A thread could be created talking about some negative story from 20 years ago concerning Prince, Wendy and Lisa, and it would run 30 pages, minimum, even if everyone knew about the story when it first happened.

That's the nature of the org...or of message boards in general. Or, again, of creamed spinach.

[Edited 1/18/14 9:33am]

True, I guess not everyone sees it if there aren't a few responses every little bit. As for me, I tend to look at each new thread at least early on--but if I don't comment, I don't tend to see later developments even if it has hundreds of responses. I'm not sure that I agree with you about creamed spinach, however. I don't care how much people talk about creamed spinach--after a few days, I'm not gonna eat it.

EddieC said:

Byron said:

If the thread drops off the first page within a few hours then it's not really all that useful, though lol...so responses do help threads become more "useful or worthwhile".

The threads with the most responses aren't the ones where something "new" or unknown about Prince is intruduced...they are the ones in which people feel the strongest need to comment. They are also the ones in which troll-ish comments start popping up (you notice which org members have not commented on this thread lol). Generally, those are the threads that have a rather negative slant/viewpoint. A thread could be created talking about some negative story from 20 years ago concerning Prince, Wendy and Lisa, and it would run 30 pages, minimum, even if everyone knew about the story when it first happened.

That's the nature of the org...or of message boards in general. Or, again, of creamed spinach.

[Edited 1/18/14 9:33am]

True, I guess not everyone sees it if there aren't a few responses every little bit. As for me, I tend to look at each new thread at least early on--but if I don't comment, I don't tend to see later developments even if it has hundreds of responses. I'm not sure that I agree with you about creamed spinach, however. I don't care how much people talk about creamed spinach--after a few days, I'm not gonna eat it.

See, I knew someone would call me out for the cream spinach remark. ...I blame political correctness.