JAMES BROWN - A Brand New Bag on SHINDIG! 1965

 Papa's Got A Brand New Bag 

James Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was born in Barnwell, South Carolina, and by the time he was 11 he won his first talent show, dancing and singing. He dropped out of school after 6th grade. In 1955 he and his group, The Famous Flames, began their recording career, and in 1966 they had a huge hit with "Please, Please, Please" a song inspired by Little Richard.

By 1962 Brown and The Famous Flames started making inroads into the mainstream "top 40" radio world. I was all of 13 years old when James had his first #1 hit, and performed on SHINDIG! He was magnetic, exotic, sexual in a way that basically NEVER got on network TV. It was my generation's introduction to Soul Music.

James went on to become an advocate for Black rights, and a spokesperson with songs like "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud (1969). His career spanned over 50 years, and he touched on or created virtually all aspects of pop music, from funk to rap to hip-hop.

This video from Shindig shows his talent, but also reflects the time it was made, and you can almost hear the TV producers saying "How can we make this work for our mainly white viewing audience?" A slice of history...

https://youtu.be/hMoEXGbdyc0

TINA TURNER - Live at 70

Proud Mary 

Tina Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939 in Brownsville, Tennessee, a sharecropper's daughter. Turner began her career in 1958 as a featured singer with Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm, recording under the name "Little Ann" on "Boxtop". Her introduction to the public as Tina Turner began with the hit single "A Fool in Love" (1960), released by the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. She married Ike Turner in 1962. Success followed with a string of notable hits, including "Proud Mary" in 1971. Tina separated from Ike Turner in 1976, ending both their personal relationship and their musical partnership; the couple divorced in 1978. In her autobiography, I, Tina: My Life Story (1986), Turner revealed that Ike Turner had subjected her to domestic violence. 

In the 1980s, Turner launched a major comeback as a solo artist. A string of hits turned her into a superstar. In 1993, "What's Love Got to Do with It", a biographical film adapted from Turner's autobiography, was released along with an accompanying soundtrack album.

Turner has won 12 Grammy Awards; those awards include eight competitive awards, three Grammy Hall of Fame awards, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Rolling Stone ranked Turner 63rd on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time and 17th on its list of the 100 greatest singers of all time. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Ike Turner in 1991 (she refused to show up for the award) and is a 2005 recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors.

Here is Tina Turner, on her final world tour in 2009. 70 years old, she was celebrating over 50 years in the music business.

I want to dance like this when I turn 70!!!

https://youtu.be/TTfYnRQgKgY?t=154

Helene Grimaud - my most favorite living pianist

Debussy: La Cathédrale Engloutie

 My new favorite pianist is Hélène Grimaud. Every once in a while there is an artist that is talented, powerful, expressive, beautiful and driven to improve the world with their actions and abilities - Hélène Grimaud is a true Renaissance woman.

Extremely protective of her personal life, there is little information about her on the internet beyond her music. Here are a couple off facts: Born in 1969, she launched her professional career at the age of 18, making her debut with the Orchestre de Paris under Daniel Barenboim. She experiences synesthesia, where one physical sense adds to another, in her case seeing music as color, which helps her with memorizing music scores. She has recorded everything from Bach to the Rachmaninoff to Corigiliano. She has written three books, and is also a committed wildlife conservationist, and compassionate human rights activist. She is the founder of the Wolf Conservation Center, and has a passion for wolves, which she studies and raises.

Her last two recordings, WATER and MEMORY, are tributes to her artistry. Here is a performance from 2016 at the album launch event in Paris. There are illuminated bottles at the edges of the stage, filled with jellyfish. Please enjoy this transcendent performance, which starts with a bit of electronic music, Nitin Sawhney’s "Transition 7".

https://youtu.be/gN3S2LMF6Oc

ART TATUM - Genius

 Dvorak: Variations on Humoresque

 What could you achieve if you didn’t place any limitations on yourself? Jazz pianist Art Tatum— called “the eighth wonder of the world” by Count Basie—is a perfect example of a man who knew no boundaries.

Though legally blind, Tatum expressed an interest in the piano as a youngster. He listened to the music of Fats Waller and Lee Sims on the radio for hours, hoping that someday he would be able to perform as well as they did. Of course, that meant he’d have to learn to play, but unfortunately, like many families in the 1920's, his had few resources to spend on music lessons. After playing by ear for many years (they say he had perfect pitch and an incredible memory) he had formal piano lessons at the age of 15 with Overton G. Rainey at the Toledo Ohio School of Music. Mr. Rainey taught the classical tradition, as he did not improvise and discouraged his students from playing jazz. As Tatum neared adolescence, he devised his own method for learning the instrument.

He persuaded friends to escort him to a local jazz club, where he was given permission to sit at the player piano. As the music played, Tatum kept his fingers hovering lightly over the falling keys, feeling his way through the songs. He practiced late into the night, as often as he could—in spite of his age, his schoolwork, and his part-time job. Learning to play piano in this manner was difficult, but not just because he was blind.

What Tatum didn’t realize was that player piano rolls of that era were the result of two pianists playing together. He was learning to play with two hands what normally took four. As a result, he developed an incredible dexterity that enabled him to master the piano.

Even though this story starts in the 1920’s, we are still amazed by Art Tatum’s skill and innovation one hundred years later. Art was unaware of his limitations. He did not know he was attempting the impossible; he just did the impossible. If it's true that “necessity is the mother of invention,” then Art reminds us that not knowing something is sometimes the father of innovation. 

https://youtu.be/qYcZGPLAnHA

8/7/20 - Nina Simone's powerful song, FOUR WOMEN, sung by four powerful women

Four Women, featuring Lisa Simone, Dianne Reeves, Lizz Wright, Angélique Kidjo

 

Eunice Kathleen Waymon, known professionally as Nina Simone, was an American singer, songwriter, musical arranger, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned a broad range of styles, including classical, jazz, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop. Nina referred to her music as Black Classical Music.

While most of her records featured interpretations of songs written by others, in 1966 she released this original composition. On “Four Women,” she deconstructs the shameful dual legacies of slavery and racism in America, narrating from the perspective of four black female characters. Aunt Sarah is forced to work hard and be strong, lest a whip be cracked on her back; the biracial Saffronia exists between black and white worlds, shouldering the knowledge that her father “forced [her] mother late one night”; Sweet Thing is the little girl forced to grow up too fast, who has come to understand her body as something that has a price and a cost. The song is set to a simple melody of bass and percussion, with Simone on the piano, but the tension builds with each vignette. By the time she gets to Peaches, the most vengeful character, Simone is yelling with the fury of many generations, and the instruments crescendo. With “Four Women,” Simone took a stand for black women, whose suffering at the nexus of race and gender discrimination is often rendered invisible.

Please enjoy this performance by 4 AMAZING singers, recorded in 2009 

https://youtu.be/7R_Qk1AN5S4