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Posts published in “Crossovers”

MUSIC MONDAY: “Close To You: Soulful Burt Bacharach Covers” (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Close To You: Soulful Burt Bacharach Covers” (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on February 13, 2023

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Happy Black History Month, you all. Now it might seem counterintuitive to use my February offering to feature and honor Burt Bacharach, who died on February 8 at age 94.

The prolific composer, songwriter, record producer, and pianist is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential figures of 20th-century popular music. He was a six-time Grammy Award winner and three-time Academy Award winner, Bacharach’s songs have been recorded by more than 1,000 different artists.

However, no one would disagree that Bacharach’s (and his lyricist partner Hal David‘s) most popular success was with Dionne Warwick. They created a string of 39 consecutive chart hits including “Don’t Make Me Over,” “Walk On By,” and “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again.” Their collaboration would continue for decades including his production of “That’s What Friends Are For.”

[spotifyplaybutton play=”https://open.spotify.com/playlist/454iRyoXvDx8m6YjSs7MvX?si=632c3003460747b8″]

This “Close To You: Soulful Burt Bacharach Covers” collection features generations of Black artists who have collaborated directly with Bacharach (Ronald Isley), covered beautifully (Aretha Franklin, Love), and sampled (Mos Def, Masta Ace, Floetry) the work of Burt Bacharach.

Stevie Wonder‘s live performance in 1972, of “Close To You” and the Jackson 5′s “Never Can Say Goodbye utilizing the ‘talkbox,’ inspired Frank Ocean’s cover on his 2016 album, Blonde.

Bobby Womack and Isaac Hayes each spent ample time covering Bacharach while pushing against what they saw as limits of what was acceptable for Black artists.

The 5th Dimension, who were stung by being called “the Black group, with the white sound,” are present with “One Less Bell To Answer.” Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. perform it twice in this collection.

There are ample examples of hip-hop artists using Warwick and Bacharach’s work on “Recognize,” “Hold U,” “Must Be Bobby,” “Know That” and other tracks.

So please enjoy this Black History Month celebration of Burt Bacharach’s impactful work through the creation of these great Black artists.

Until next month, stay safe, sane, and kind.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
R.I.P. Jazz and R&B Artist, Musician and Producer James Mtume, 76

R.I.P. Jazz and R&B Artist, Musician and Producer James Mtume, 76

By goodblacknews on January 11, 2022

James Mtume, recording artist, musician and one of the most innovative producers of R&B in the 1970s and 1980s, passed away on January 9. He was 76.

Philadelphia native Mtume is perhaps best known for his 1983 hit single “Juicy Fruit” which became even more well known when sampled in 1994 in Notorious B.I.G.’s signature hip hop single “Juicy.”

Mtume began his professional career playing percussion with Miles Davis’ electric band in the 1970s. Multi-instrumentalist Mtume brought his jazz chops to R&B when he later wrote and produced songs for Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway, Stephanie Mills and others.

To quote from Los Angeles Times:

Described in the artist’s words as “sophistifunk,” Mtume’s sleek yet finely detailed music layered lush, jazz-inspired chord arrangements over uncluttered post-disco grooves that could make slow jams feel like club tracks and make club tracks feel like slow jams.

“Juicy Fruit,” with a stuttering drum-machine beat and a risqué lyric suggesting the pleasures of oral sex, spent eight weeks atop Billboard’s R&B chart (and led, Mtume said, to a legal inquiry from the Wrigley gum company).

Mtume’s survivors include his wife, Kamili; his brother, Jeffrey Forman; two sons, four daughters and six grandchildren.

Read more: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2022-01-10/james-mtume-juicy-notorious-big-dies?_amp=true

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/10/1071812297/percussionist-james-mtume-the-beat-behind-juicy-and-later-miles-davis-dies-at-76

Rest In Power Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 90, Nobel Peace Prize Winner and Human Rights Activist

Rest In Power Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 90, Nobel Peace Prize Winner and Human Rights Activist

By goodblacknews on December 26, 2021

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who helped lead the movement that ended apartheid, the unjust system of white rule in South Africa and won a Nobel Peace Prize, passed away today in Cape Town, the country’s president Cryil Ramaphosa confirmed Sunday. Tutu was 90.

Ramaphosa stated: “[A] leader of principle and pragmatism who gave meaning to the biblical insight that faith without works is dead.”

The Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation said the cause of Tutu’s death was cancer, adding that Tutu died in a care facility. The archbishop was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997, and had been hospitalized several times in the decades since.

To quote from the New York Times:

As leader of the South African Council of Churches and later as Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, Archbishop Tutu led the church to the forefront of Black South Africans’ decades-long struggle for freedom. His voice was a powerful force for nonviolence in the anti-apartheid movement, earning him a Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.

When that movement triumphed in the early 1990s, he prodded the country toward a new relationship between its white and Black citizens, and, as chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he gathered testimony documenting the viciousness of apartheid.

“You are overwhelmed by the extent of evil,” he said. But, he added, it was necessary to open the wound to cleanse it. In return for an honest accounting of past crimes, the committee offered amnesty, establishing what Archbishop Tutu called the principle of restorative — rather than retributive — justice.

His credibility was crucial to the commission’s efforts to get former members of the South African security forces and former guerrilla fighters to cooperate with the inquiry.

Archbishop Tutu preached that the policy of apartheid was as dehumanizing to the oppressors as it was to the oppressed. At home, he stood against looming violence and sought to bridge the chasm between Black and white; abroad, he urged economic sanctions against the South African government to force a change of policy.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/26/world/africa/desmond-tutu-dead.html

 

R.I.P. bell hooks, 69, Acclaimed Author, Activist and Poet

R.I.P. bell hooks, 69, Acclaimed Author, Activist and Poet

By goodblacknews on December 15, 2021

[bell hooks at The New School. Photo: Spencer Kohn, 2013]

Professor, author, and activist bell hooks, who explored and dissected social, political, gender and interpersonal issues in addition to intersectionality in works such as All About Love, Bone Black,  Ain’t I a Woman, The Will To Change: Men, Masculinity & Love,  Feminist Theory and Communion: The Female Search for Love, died today at 69.

She passed at home in Berea, Kentucky after an extended illness, according to a family statement from William Morrow Publishers and Berea College in Kentucky, which houses the bell hooks Institute.

Named Gloria Jean Watkins at birth, hooks was internationally known by her lowercase pen name ever since she published her 1978 collection of poems, And There We Wept. hooks took the name to honor her great-grandmother, Bell Blair Hooks. (She was told often as a child that her quick thinking and outspokenness was like that of “Granny Bell.”)

To quote from Los Angeles Times:

She attended segregated schools in Kentucky’s Christian County, then went to Stanford University. She later earned a master’s degree in English at the University of Wisconsin and a doctorate in literature at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

She also founded the bell hooks Institute at Berea College, which “celebrates, honors, and documents the life and work” of its namesake. hooks also served as a distinguished professor in residence in Appalachian studies there.

In 2017, she dedicated her papers to Berea College so that future generations would know her work and the impact she had on the intersections of race, gender, place, class and sexuality, the school said. The following year, she was inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame.

Read more:

MUSIC MONDAY: “The Upsetter” – A Tribute to Reggae/Dub Legend Lee “Scratch” Perry (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “The Upsetter” – A Tribute to Reggae/Dub Legend Lee “Scratch” Perry (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on August 30, 2021

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Yesterday we lost the great Lee “Scratch” Perry, the monumental reggae singer, producer, and studio wizard who pushed the boundaries of Jamaican music.

He worked with and produced for many artists, including Bob Marley and the Wailers, the Congos, Adrian Sherwood, the Beastie Boys, and many others.

Perry also was a crucial figure in the development of the homegrown art form of dub, which involved the stripping of vocals from previously released recordings and treating the instrumental beds with a variety of otherworldly effects.

Perry serviced dozens of classic “dub plates” to Jamaican sound system dancehalls. Keith Richards told Rolling Stone back in 2010, “You could never put your finger on Lee Perry – he’s the Salvador Dali of music. He’s a mystery. The world is his instrument. You just have to listen. More than a producer, he knows how to inspire the artist’s soul. Like Phil Spector, he has a gift of not only hearing sounds that come from nowhere else but also translating those sounds to the musicians. Scratch is a shaman.”

Brotha had a healthy sense of his own impact, too. “I am the best record producer that Jamaica has seen. Many say that l am the best in the world!” he said in 1984.

Here’s a collection devoted to the best of one the greats. Stay sane, safe, and kind, y’all.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
MUSIC MONDAY: “Dream Land” – A Tribute Playlist to Bunny Wailer and the Wailers Legacy (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Dream Land” – A Tribute Playlist to Bunny Wailer and the Wailers Legacy (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 8, 2021

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Bunny Wailer, born Neville O’Riley Livingston, died on March 2nd. He was an original member of The Wailers along with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, and a lifelong standard-bearer of reggae music.

“The Wailers are to reggae what the Beatles are to rock ‘n roll and pop music,” according to Jamaican music-business veteran Copeland Forbes.

This collection is devoted to the work of The Wailers, and the solo work of Rita Marley, Peter Tosh, and of Bunny Wailer himself.

[spotifyplaybutton play=”spotify:playlist:0mBxXxCdAMgcOvgwFSlefk”]

In the 1960s The Wailers hit their initial stride with Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One label, often called Jamaica’s Motown. They recorded for several producers, including Leslie Kong and, most notably, Lee “Scratch” Perry.

I’ve included several of those songs, and ones The Wailers went on to release on their own Wail ‘N Soul ‘M and Tuff Gong labels.

By 1974, Tosh and Wailer both would leave the group for solo careers. Bob Marley would use The Wailers name for his backup band.

Hope you enjoy this collection of music by greats artist done together and separately.

Stay stay, sane, and kind, you all. Until such time.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
R.I.P. Civil Rights Leader and Former National Urban League President Vernon Jordan, 85

R.I.P. Civil Rights Leader and Former National Urban League President Vernon Jordan, 85

By goodblacknews on March 2, 2021

Vernon Jordan, a civil rights movement activist and leader, former National Urban League president and adviser to former President Bill Clinton, died yesterday evening according to CNN. He was 85. His cause of death has not yet been released.

To quote cnn.com:

Born on August 15, 1935, Jordan grew up in the segregated South and graduated from DePauw University in Indiana in 1957, the only Black student in his class.

He then studied law at Howard University and began his career fighting segregation, starting with a lawsuit against University of Georgia‘s integration policy in 1961 on the behalf of two Black students, Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter. Jordan accompanied the two students to the UGA admissions office that year through an angry mob of White students.

He worked as a field director for the NAACP and as a director of the Southern Regional Council for the Voter Education Project before he became president of the National Urban League. In 1980, he survived an assassination attempt on his life.

“Today, the world lost an influential figure in the fight for civil rights and American politics, Vernon Jordan. An icon to the world and a lifelong friend to the NAACP, his contribution to moving our society toward justice is unparalleled,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement Tuesday. “In 2001, Jordan received the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for a lifetime of social justice activism. His exemplary life will shine as a guiding light for all that seek truth and justice for all people.”

To read more about Jordan:

R.I.P. Reggae Legend Bunny Wailer, 73, Founding Member of the Wailers with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh (VIDEO)

R.I.P. Reggae Legend Bunny Wailer, 73, Founding Member of the Wailers with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh (VIDEO)

By goodblacknews on March 2, 2021

Bunny Wailer, a founding member of the Wailers and a reggae music titan whose career spanned seven decades, died today at the age of 73, according to the Jamaica Observer.

Wailer’s manager Maxine Stowe confirmed that Wailer died  at the Medical Associates Hospital in Kingston, Jamaica (via the Jamaica Observer). No cause of death has been named so far, but Wailer had been in and out of the hospital since suffering his second stroke, in 2020.

Wailer, born Neville Livingston — before adopting his famous moniker — was a member of the original Wailers trio with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh.

https://youtu.be/R2rmFRHhwoA

To quote from Rolling Stone:

While Marley and Livingston were being mentored by Joe Higgs, “the Godfather of Reggae,” they met Higgs’ fellow student Peter Tosh; the then-trio ventured to Kingston. Soon after, they were joined by singer Junior Braithwaite and backup vocalists Beverley Kelso and Cherry Smith. Following a string of name changes that included the Teenagers and the Wailing Wailers, the Wailers aligned with Coxsone Dodd’s sound system and Studio One label — which employed songwriters and producers like Lee “Scratch” Perry and Jackie Mittoo — and released the Marley-penned “Simmer Down,” a Number One hit in Jamaica.

Braithwaite, Kelso, and Smith soon departed the Wailers, leaving the nucleus of Marley, Livingston, and Tosh intact; that trio recorded the band’s debut LP, 1965’s The Wailing Wailers, a collection of tracks the band recorded during the mid-Sixties. The Wailers then went on hiatus as Marley married his wife Rita and joined his mother in Wilmington, Delaware; during this period, Livingston served a yearlong sentence for marijuana possession. However, the three principle Wailers reunited upon Marley’s return to Jamaica.

While Marley and Tosh served as the Wailers’ primary singers and songwriters, Livingston played an indispensable role in providing harmonies to the trio’s songs. The Wailers next teamed with Perry and his Upsetters for 1970’s Soul Rebels and 1971’s Soul Revolution; around that time, Livingston wrote and recorded one of his signature songs, “Dreamland,” a track he revisited when he released his solo LP Blackheart Man in 1976.

To read more:

R.I.P. Mary Wilson, 76, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Motown Legend and Co-Founder of the Supremes (VIDEO)

R.I.P. Mary Wilson, 76, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Motown Legend and Co-Founder of the Supremes (VIDEO)

By goodblacknews on February 9, 2021

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

It certainly was unwelcome news to wake up to this morning – the news that singing legend Mary Wilson had passed away suddenly and unexpectedly at her home in Las Vegas at 76, news that has been confirmed by her manager.

As an original member of the Supremes, Wilson, along with Florence Ballard and Diana Ross, made history as pop and R&B chart toppers with classic songs like “Where Did Our Love Go?” “Stop! In the Name of Love,” “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” and “Someday We’ll Be Together.”

Although the Supremes line-up changed multiple times over the years, Mary Wilson remained its one steadfast member and continued to perform with the group over the decades, even as she offered music as a solo singer.

Above is an incredible clip of Wilson taking lead vocals on  the Supremes cover of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” at the Hollywood Palace in 1969.

In 1986, Wilson wrote the New York Times bestseller Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme and in 2019 offered Supreme Glamour, a retrospective on the group and their iconic costumes and ensembles, its forward written by Whoopi Goldberg.

Recently Wilson was a celebrity contestant on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars and was planning to release a new album later this year.

To learn more about Mary Wilson’s life, career and music, click below:

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/09/965713448/mary-wilson-founding-member-of-the-supremes-dies-at-76

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2021-02-09/diana-ross-reacts-to-death-of-mary-wilson-supremes

Good Black News hopes to offer a tribute playlist to Wilson later in the week.

(paid links)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Lean on Me” – Playlist Honoring Artists Who Passed in 2020 (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Lean on Me” – Playlist Honoring Artists Who Passed in 2020 (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on December 28, 2020

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Here’s a playlist of music artists who died this year. Although their beautiful voices and talents were lost in 2020, we can enjoy them for years to come.

[spotifyplaybutton play=”spotify:playlist:60iICEwa7tcL2qIaCIdF2a”]

Musicians are often our collective voices, sharing ideas and feelings through their lyrics and melodies that the rest of us struggle to express. It’s why the deaths of musicians are often difficult to process.

It’s hard to say goodbye to the people who made the art and culture that define our times and speak so directly to us. This collection features soul, hip-hop, country, jazz, and other artists that have been taken by COVID-19, long illness, natural causes, gun violence, and overdoses.

There’s only one way into this world, yet they keep making up new ones to take us out. But I digress. Please enjoy this collection of music that will resonate for eons by folks we’ve lost on this trying trip around the sun.

An early Happy New Year to you all. I can’t scrape 2020 off the bottom of my proverbial shoe fast enough.

Stay safe, sane, and kind you all.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)