Afronomical said:

Yeah you hope.

MsLegs said:

Yea, this is the org after all right?

Afronomical said:

We must keep that in mind.

Afronomical said:

Hope in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first.


But.... if you don't want people to post their own opinions and add their own take on the thread, and only want to just post a bunch of research info and biographical entries, start a blog. Don't bring it to a discussion forum.
[Edited 6/8/07 19:00pm]

Some of you are hell bent on turning this thread into a racial one. Take your issues over to the P&R forum.

Raze said:

Well I hate to break this to you but the discussion had a more "P&R" angle once it started to become about race, therefore, if people wanted to discuss it from a racial point of view then they should go to the P&R forum and start the thread discussion there; that's why there is the P&R room right?

PurpleCharm said:

Voice of reason meet

Afronomical said:

I guess when you start a thread segregating music by race, race is going to come up? I'm not going to contribute to that, but it's going to happen

Raze said:

Good, then let it happen in the forum designed specifically for that. It's not rocket science is it?

Afronomical said:

Exactly! The mods of this site are quick to give warnings in non-P&R forums when threads start to turn racial, stating that they will move them over to P&R if the thread continues to veer into racial territory.

Seems like some people are trying to derail this thread with their "issues".
[Edited 6/8/07 20:50pm]

PurpleCharm said:

2elijah said:

I'm sorry but I though that said John Witherspoon, I was like when he start playing the bass.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

"My bass and my outfit have to coordinate! Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang!"
[Edited 6/9/07 0:13am]
[Edited 6/9/07 0:14am]

Afronomical said:

Brotha Fro, it seems LBC got banging comedy confused with the banging groove of a bass.

PurpleCharm said:

Exactly, Purplecharm. I agree, I think if some ppl have "personal" issues over the fact that we are celebrating the contributions to music from Black Artists and want to bring racial issues into it, then they should start their own thread in P&R on that issue, I'm sure it would be interesting but not surprising to read their opinions. Thanks Janfried for letting me post some of this info on your thread. For the poster that's not happy with the fact that there's pics of these great artists and articles regarding these artists' background history, it would be impossible not to post in these articles, the background history of what some of these great artists had to deal with while pursuing their "dream" and how they faced those obstacles and challenges in becoming the greats they turned out to be.

We can see from reading some of what Paul Robeson and Marian Anderson had to face, that no one should allow racism or prejudices to stand in their way of striving towards their dream. We know we don't live in a la-dee-da, kumbaya society, so it is important to know what these great artists experienced while achieving their dream. Just reading about Paul Robeson and Marian Anderson's achievements, gives motivation and hope to those that are aspiring artists in this day and time, and no matter what challenges, prejudices and obstacles you face or how many doors are slammed in your face, to keep striving to achieve that dream, if that is your passion, no matter what, until you've exhausted all measures.
[Edited 6/14/07 13:18pm]

I saw Chuck Brown Thursday night at Hopkins Plaza in Bmore. Chuck rocked it like a mug. Put in the ear buds and danced directly in front of the big monitors. Banging. Special guest Sugar Bear from EU came up and hit "Doing the But" ohhhh! Then Chuck's daughter came out and hit her new joint. Good grief, she phat as all outdoors main! Chuck was just laughing all night.

Afronomical said:

Agreed. Music sometimes causes people to evoke strong emotions. Of course, we'll have fun converse on the groove in a civil manner and handle things accordingly hopefully. Togetherness is what music is all about. Music should bring people in one accord to the rhythm.

THOMAS "FATS" WALLER
PIANIST/COMPOSER





"A celebrated jazz pianist, organist, and composer, "Fats" Waller was a protege of the famous pianist James P. Johnson in the 1920s, and later accompanied. such important vocalists as Bessie Smith. He recorded hundreds of his own compositions encompassing ragtime, boogie woogie, dixieland and swing styles, and he influenced generations of jazz pianists. Waller also performed on radio and in several motion pictures. Familiar works include "Honeysuckle Rose," "Ain't Misbehavin'," and "Black and Blue."
[Edited 6/18/07 18:58pm]

MsLegs said:

Where's HIS mind at huh?

Afronomical said:

Hmmmm. Perhaps, he has a tent in his pants or he likes banging things.
[Edited 6/9/07 10:01am]

MsLegs said:

Spotlight: rhythm and blues


Rhythm and Blues is a descriptive term that has never had a clear single meaning. In it's broadest sense, R&B denotes black pop music. However, as black pop music changes, it has become a term that is often defined by whatever black musical style it is attached to at a given point in time, rather than the other way around.

In the beginning it was a renaming of "race" music. and later gave way to soul, funk, disco and simply "black" styles. Small rhythm and blues combos revved up Tin Pan Alley pop tunes with rhythms derived from swing jazz and vocals reflecting the blues. They linked the big band jump blues of the Forties with early rock and roll. Early rock and roll hits were often covers by white singers of R&B hits, like Elvis Presley's version of Roy Brown's "Good Rockin' Tonight" or Bill Haley and His Comets cleaned-up take on Big Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle and Roll."

Jump Blues
Uptempo, jazz - tinged blues, usually featuring a vocalist in front of a large, horn - driven orchestra with less reliance on guitar work than other styles.

Blues Shooters
Blues shouters developed their raucous style in order to be heard above the big bands of the'30s and '40s. Even in the country blues style that preceded them "shouting" was a way of expressing deep emotion. This raspy, strident vocal style matched in intensity the big band style. Representatives of the shouter tradition included Big Joe Turner, Wynonie Harris, and Roy Brown.

With the ending of the Swing Era the big bands broke into smaller units, jazz and blues going their separate ways to bebop units and dance house R&B "jump blues" bands that played music with a big dance beat and broad appeal. The jump bands began as smaller versions of the swing bands, consisting of a rhythm section and a couple horns that played hard driving riffs and solos over blues progressions, and a boogie derived bass and beat.The overall rhythm accented the backbeats. The featured soloists were usually sax players that who abandoned the finesse of jazz for a wailing sax that matched the energy of the music.

Count Basie and Lionel Hampton bands were important bridges between swing and R&B. Basie's 1937 "One O'Clock Jump" and Hampton's 1942 "Flying Home" were signs of things to come. Roy Milton's "R.M. Blues and Joe Liggin's "The Honeydripper" released in 1945, both sold a million copies, signally a re-vitalized "race" and a white audience for this music. Other important records were Roy Brown's 1947 "Good Rockin' Tonight," The Hucklebuck" by a number of artists and Jimmy Liggins' 1950 "The Shufflebuck."






Rhythm and blues originated from the sociological, industrial, and technological changes that took place in the United States just prior to and during World War II (1939-1945). Foremost among these changes was a widespread shift in American demographics. Attracted by relatively high-paying wartime employment, hundreds of thousands of black Americans migrated from the rural South to Midwest, Northeast, and West Coast cities. In popular music, new styles were created to meet the changing tastes of this demographic group, leading to the development of the urbane sounds of R&B.

The profound sociological changes of the World War II period were accompanied by two significant technological developments: the invention of the electric guitar in the late 1930s and the discovery of the German-invented tape recorder by the music industry at the end of the war. With the new, relatively affordable technology of magnetic tape, which simplified the recording process, enterprising individuals were able to start independent record companies. Since the major record companies in the United States, with the exception of Decca Records, had little interest in R&B, newly formed independent companies, such as Atlantic, Chess, Specialty, and Modern, were crucial for the production and distribution of R&B recordings.

Another important industrial change resulted from the rise of television broadcasting in the United States in the late 1940s. Radio-station owners who thought that television would soon make radio obsolete sold their stations at bargain prices. New radio-station owners, seeking a niche in the marketplace, often turned to newly urbanized American blacks. Beginning with the Memphis radio station WDIA in 1948, these emergent black-oriented radio stations allowed the new independent record companies to air the sounds of R&B to a black urban audience

Cont...


Although the sounds of early black urban music were being performed throughout the United States, the recording of R&B began on the two coasts. Former big-band jazz musician Louis Jordan formed a small ensemble in 1938, which he eventually named the Tympany Five. Signed to New York-based Decca Records, Jordan recorded primarily in the up-tempo, horn-driven style known as jump blues. His compositions tended to be based on traditional 12-bar blues and featured appealing riffs (repeated phrases commonly played by the horn section), simplified rhythmic solos, and humorous lyrics. Many of Jordan's biggest hits, including “G.I. Jive” (1944), “Caldonia” (1945), and “Choo Choo Ch'Boogie” (1946), were exceedingly popular with both black and white audiences. The jump-blues style he originated rapidly spread among black musicians, with distinctive regional variants emerging in cities such as New Orleans, Louisiana, and Memphis, Tennessee. Jordan influenced every R&B artist in the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s, including James Brown, B. B. King, and Chuck Berry.





Rhythm-and-Blues Music or R&B, variety of different, but related, types of popular music produced and supported primarily by black Americans beginning in the early 1940s. Rhythm-and-blues music, also known simply as R&B, embraces such genres as jump blues, club blues, black rock and roll, doo wop, soul, Motown, funk, disco, and rap. First coined in 1949 by Jerry Wexler, who would become prominent with Atlantic Records, the term rhythm and blues was used as a synonym for black rock and roll (rock-and-roll music done by black musicians) in the early and mid-1950s. Until white rock-and-roll performers such as Bill Haley and Elvis Presley achieved mass popularity in the mid-1950s, what was commonly referred to as rock and roll by white disc jockeys and fans was referred to as the latest style of R&B by black disc jockeys and fans.

As a tradition, R&B provided the single greatest influence on popular music worldwide for much of the second half of the 20th century. This influence can be traced in forms of rock music, country and western, gospel music, and jazz as well as in a variety of non-Western forms of music, including Nigerian juju, a style of popular dance music, and Algerian rai, another popular style distinguished by its rebellious lyrics. As the influence of various styles of R&B has grown, black urban values have also permeated a wide variety of other cultures, most notably that of contemporary Euro-American youth.




Despite vast differences between genres, such as rap and jump blues, there are common musical and social elements that link the many styles of R&B. The approach to musical rhythm is the most important distinguishing characteristic of R&B music and its substyles. While all genres of R&B typically depend upon four-beat building blocks (measures or bars), prominent use of syncopation, and a backbeat (beats two and four accented in each measure), the specific approach to the expression of musical time (the so-called groove) is one of the primary means of differentiating one genre from another, and even one player or band from another.










Rhythm and blues originated from the sociological, industrial, and technological changes that took place in the United States just prior to and during World War II (1939-1945). Foremost among these changes was a widespread shift in American demographics. Attracted by relatively high-paying wartime employment, hundreds of thousands of black Americans migrated from the rural South to Midwest, Northeast, and West Coast cities. In popular music, new styles were created to meet the changing tastes of this demographic group, leading to the development of the urbane sounds of R&B.

The profound sociological changes of the World War II period were accompanied by two significant technological developments: the invention of the electric guitar in the late 1930s and the discovery of the German-invented tape recorder by the music industry at the end of the war. With the new, relatively affordable technology of magnetic tape, which simplified the recording process, enterprising individuals were able to start independent record companies. Since the major record companies in the United States, with the exception of Decca Records, had little interest in R&B, newly formed independent companies, such as Atlantic, Chess, Specialty, and Modern, were crucial for the production and distribution of R&B recordings.

Another important industrial change resulted from the rise of television broadcasting in the United States in the late 1940s. Radio-station owners who thought that television would soon make radio obsolete sold their stations at bargain prices. New radio-station owners, seeking a niche in the marketplace, often turned to newly urbanized American blacks. Beginning with the Memphis radio station WDIA in 1948, these emergent black-oriented radio stations allowed the new independent record companies to air the sounds of R&B to a black urban audience.



Although the sounds of early black urban music were being performed throughout the United States, the recording of R&B began on the two coasts. Former big-band jazz musician Louis Jordan formed a small ensemble in 1938, which he eventually named the Tympany Five. Signed to New York-based Decca Records, Jordan recorded primarily in the up-tempo, horn-driven style known as jump blues. His compositions tended to be based on traditional 12-bar blues and featured appealing riffs (repeated phrases commonly played by the horn section), simplified rhythmic solos, and humorous lyrics. Many of Jordan's biggest hits, including “G.I. Jive” (1944), “Caldonia” (1945), and “Choo Choo Ch'Boogie” (1946), were exceedingly popular with both black and white audiences. The jump-blues style he originated rapidly spread among black musicians, with distinctive regional variants emerging in cities such as New Orleans, Louisiana, and Memphis, Tennessee. Jordan influenced every R&B artist in the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s, including James Brown, B. B. King, and Chuck Berry.

At the same time, a number of pianists, including Nat 'King' Cole and Charles Brown, pioneered a much quieter, subdued style known as club blues. These artists were often called sepia Sinatras, a moniker that reflected the crooning vocal style that characterized this genre. By playing ballads with a highly rhythmic piano style, Cole, like Jordan, was able to sell his music well to both black and white audiences

Two other styles of R&B were popular in the late 1940s and early 1950s: an instrumental strain largely modeled on jump blues and featuring a coarse, honking tenor saxophone sound; and the vocal-group genre. The most important musicians who promoted the instrumental style were tenor saxophonist Big Jay McNeely, alto and baritone saxophonist Paul Williams, and tenor saxophonist Joe Houston. The most important vocal groups of the time included the Ink Spots, the Mills Brothers, and the Ravens.
[Edited 6/9/07 13:39pm]

Soul

Soul did not evolve until the early sixties when artists like Sam Cooke, Bobby Bland and Ray Charles began merging traditional Gospel and R&B styles. Ray Charles went even further and began taking overtly religious songs such as 'I Got Religion' and secularising them to become songs like 'I Got a Woman'. In the process he alienated many religious blacks who thought his music was 'the music of the devil'.

Throughout the early sixties the most important centres for Soul were Chicago, Memphis and Detroit, each developing their own distinctive styles. It was the Stax label in Memphis which relied most heavily on Gospel and which produced the rawest sound. In Detroit Tamla Motown were busy combining polished songwriting with straightforward vocal delivery to evolve Soul's most commercial style of all. Indeed this label was so successful that its music is often considered to be a genre in its own right. Its producer and owner Berry Gordy achieved this not only by using sophisticated productions but also by sanitising the content so as not to offend white ears. Chicago soul fell somewhere between the two with its main player being Curtis Mayfield. With his group 'The Impressions' he experimented with trading lines between the lead and the backing group in a call and response fashion. He termed his music 'Songs of Faith and Inspiration' and often included semi-religious overtones. A good example of Mayfield's work is his composition 'People Get Ready'.

By the 1970's however 'Soul' was being superseded by 'Funk' as the most important form of Black Music. Whereas traditional Soul had its Roots in R&B, the Roots of Funk were in Jazz and African Music. Whereas many Soul aficionados consider Funk and soul to be distinct Genres the term 'soul' is now commonly used to encompass both styles and this can lead to confusion. James Brown's song 'Cold Sweat' (1967) is generally regarded as the first ever 'Funk' composition. Historically funk has been closely associated with Malcolm X and the Black Power movement, whereas Soul has been associated with Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement, the former being violent, the latter being peaceful. For this reason funk has never achieved the same popularity with white audiences as Soul has done.



In the 1960s the three most important styles of R&B were: (1) Chicago soul, influenced by gospel-music songs; (2) the Motown sound, which combined polished songwriting with a straightforward vocal delivery; and (3) southern soul, the most gospel-influenced style of R&B. Chicago soul was epitomized by the work of singer and songwriter Curtis Mayfield with the group the Impressions. Mayfield tended to write what he termed “songs of faith and inspiration,” with compositions such as “People Get Ready” (1965), which featured several different lead singers trading vocal lines in call-and-response fashion. Other trademarks of Mayfield and the Chicago soul genre included the frequent use of falsetto (an artificially high voice), the writing of idiosyncratic parts for stringed instruments, the use of the vibraphone (a musical percussion instrument), and a song structure that incorporated short two- and four-bar interludes, often arranged for unique instrumental combinations such as vibes and guitar

Southern soul was originated by singer and songwriter James Brown and singer and pianist Ray Charles. On many of the earliest soul records, Charles would take a traditional religious song, such as “I Got Religion,” and transform it into a secular paean to love (“I've Got A Woman,” 1955). This style was fully realized on recordings issued by Memphis-based Stax Records and New York-based Atlantic Records in the mid- and late 1960s with vocal artists such as Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding. Beginning at the same time as Motown, Stax developed its own unique, identifiable sound around a studio band consisting of instrumental group Booker T. and the MG's, keyboardist Isaac Hayes, and the Mar-Key horn section (later the Memphis Horns). With star artists, such as Redding and soul duo Sam and Dave, producing a sparse, gospel-derived sound, Stax performers sold records to white audiences while generating substantial record sales among black audiences. By adding such refinements as string accompaniments, southern soul remained a significant presence in popular music throughout much of the 1970s, with such successful artists as the family vocal group the Staple Singers and Memphis-based singers Isaac Hayes and Al Green

DEBORAH COLEMAN
Blues Singer/guitar player
www.deborahcoleman.com




"Deborah Coleman is unquestionably, as USA Today notes, "one of blues music's most exciting young talents." Though she has released four studio albums on the Blind Pig label that have firmly established her as one of the leading lights in the blues field, it has been her knockout live performances that have made her one of the hottest commodities on the contemporary scene.

Meticulous and focused in the studio and highly charismatic onstage, Coleman has developed a guitar style that reflects the influences of Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Freddie King, Albert Collins and Larry Carlton. Her vocal inspirations are as often found in the singing of Chrissie Hynde and Patti Smith as in the recordings of Bessie Smith, Janis Joplin, Memphis Minnie and Alberta Hunter

At 15, she joined a series of rock and R&B bands—first as a bass player, but later switching to lead guitar after hearing Jimi Hendrix. Like most musicians of her generation, radio was an important early influence. “Back then, the formats of the radio stations were more diverse,” she says. “I remember hearing Joe Cocker, James Brown, Ray Charles and the Beatles on the same station.”

As her interest in guitar-driven music grew, she plugged into rock groups such as the Yardbirds, Cream and Led Zeppelin, and followed the roots of their music back to its origin in the blues. “Jeff Beck was one of my favorites,” she recalls. “I didn’t find out until later that they were doing blues tunes and I went to find the original artists.” A pivotal event for Coleman was a concert she saw when she was 21 that featured Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker all on the same bill. “I will never forget that show,” she says. “It started me on a path to my roots.”

Coleman has earned a well-deserved reputation for raw energy and crowd-pleasing shows. A highly charismatic stage performer, Coleman is able to stretch out in the live setting and demonstrate her considerable guitar skills. USA Today called her a "fiery guitarist who makes the spine tingle with her unbridled raw energy."
[Edited 6/18/07 19:02pm]

2elijah said:

Neither did I

ODETTA
Blues/Folk Singer





"Odetta was born in Alabama and grew up in Los Angeles. With a trained voice and a love of classical music, Odetta's goal as a teenager was to sing oratorio because, back in the bad old days, she felt a black woman couldn't become an opera singer. But a chance exposure to folk changed her mind about music and the gift of an old guitar changed her life. A folk music legend, Odetta is imposing. She caresses her audience with a message of hope, love and social change. Her accomplishments are stunning: she has performed all over the world in concert halls, clubs, and universities; accompanied ballet companies and symphony orchestras; acted in "The Crucible" and "The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon-Marigolds;" and received the Duke Ellington Fellowship Award at Yale University. She has collaborated with other major folk stars -- Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Buffy St. Marie, the late Elizabeth Cotton, to name a few, and has been honored by the Federation of Protestant Charities and The World Folk Music Association, with their Lifetime Achievement Awards for her contributions to numerous humanitarian organizations and causes. Odetta's purpose is to be useful, she says, performing "wherever and whenever I'm needed." Her favorite audiences are college students ("TV babies and rock concert devotees," she calls them) because she feels that their "listening muscle" needs development. "If they are not responsive, I tease them and ask if they have ever been with a nonresponsive lover. I'm up here making love to you and it's no fun if you don't respond."
[Edited 6/18/07 18:59pm]

Janfriend said:

You learn something new everyday. Right now on the cable Black STARZ channel they have a special on called "Blues Divas". They are featuring Deborah Coleman, Mavis Staples and Odetta so far. That's where I found the 2 of them and looked up info on them

2elijah said:

I just set my DVR!

Janfriend said:

Deborah Coleman just kicked a** on that guitar!