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Posts tagged as “Jon Batiste”

REVIEW: I’ve Got Such Big Feelings for WILLOW’s Emotive, Exploratory and Excellent New LP “empathogen”

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson, GBN Editor-in-Chief

I’m starting off straight up corny by saying I’ve been a “transparent soul” with anyone who’d listen to me about my anticipation of WILLOW’s sixth and latest solo LP, which finally dropped May 3rd.

My owning of my corniness, turns out, totally vibes with the messages about the freedom to express & accept your feelings, warts and all, coursing throughout the #greatalbum “empathogen” (2024).

Not only do I absolutely love how WILLOW wrestles lyrically (and musically) with Big Ideas such as existence, ego, anxiety, pain, self-sabotage, fear and love, she does so in such soul-felt, sophisticated & surprising ways, I have to compliment the precise production by WILLOW and her fellow producers Chris Greatti, Eddie Benjamin and Jon Batiste.

There are myriad sounds, echo effects and vocal arrangements involved in each track, even the stripped down ones, but none ever feel overdone — just purposeful and fresh. It’s as if WILLOW threw her hands into the cosmic river of music, tapped into its source, and allowed it to flow freely through her.

There’s a lot going on technically in the music I can’t speak on with any authority (e.g. the multiple time signatures, turnarounds, uncommon verse/chorus structures) but what I can talk about is how it hits the ears and how it feels — free, unexpected, relatable, or, in one word — embracing.

WILLOW is clearly a student of music and draws on varied influences (her IG post of her working her voice out to Ella Fitzgerald’s legendary scat on “How High The Moon” blew my mind a few months ago and still lives rent free in what’s left of my head), but right now she’s reminding me most of the great Esperanza Spalding, particularly during her “Emily’s D+Evolution” (2016) jazz/pop/rock era.

WILLOW’s own pop/rock/punk/soul explorations from the past few years also inform her current jazz/funk/fusion present (and hopefully future).

The singles released from the LP, “symptom of life” and “bigfeelings”, are the best ambassadors for this tight 12-song offering which literally begins with what sounds like an off-mic Jon Batiste screeching, as if being born, “I love everything!”

(BTW, could Batiste be on more of a roll? He also co-produces and co-writes “Ameriican Requiem”, the opening track on COWBOY CARTER. If I’m an artist, I’m thinkin get this man to help kick off my LP, stat, cuz greatness will surely follow!)

After Batiste, we hear steady rimshots underneath WILLOW’s “ah oo ah ah” breaths until she sings “I live my life” — and I didn’t conjure my previous cosmic music river metaphor out of nowhere as WILLOW then sings “I trust this river to carry me / home” in this mystifyingly captivating LP opener titled “home”.

MUSIC MONDAY: “I’ll Take You There” – The Best of Mavis Staples (LISTEN)

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

Mavis Staples is eighty-four years old as I peck these words. She has been a gospel and soul singer longer than Elizabeth II wore the crown.

Many R&B vocalists started in gospel music, though she and her family have always kept a foot in both worlds. The Staple Singers have brought their spirituality, and devotion to civil rights to all of their studio and stage offerings.

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From the churches across the South Side of Chicago and the Rock ‘n Stages with artists a third her age, Mavis Staples has brought her unique smokey voice to audiences for decades.

This collection brings together her many works with The Staple Singers from 1948 until 1999, and her own solo offerings from 1969 to the present.

Mavis Staples is still an in-demand guest vocalist to boot. She has dueted or sung background with Mahalia Jackson, The Band, Gorillaz, Jon Batiste, Run the Jewels, Hozier, Benjamin Booker, Sheryl Crow, Abraham Alexander and so many others.

Mavis Staples is the only subject of one of these playlists that I have had the pleasure of spending any meaningful time with. Back in 2012 I was honored to be one of the Alumni Of The Year at Columbia College Chicago. She received an honorary doctorate from the college.

I was delighted to spend hours visiting with her that graduation weekend. She could not have been more warm, insightful, and kind.

Please enjoy this collection featuring decades of Doctor Mavis’ work with The Staple Singers, as a solo artist, and generous collaborator.

As always, stay safe, sane, and kind.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Grammys Got Soul” – Every Best R&B Song Winner Playlist (LISTEN)

by Jeff Meier (FB: Jeff.Meier.90)

At yesterday’s Grammy Awards, power group Silk Sonic (featuring Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars) and its signature song “Leave The Door Open” had a huge night, winning in both major categories for singles — Song of the Year and Record of the Year.

FYI, Silk Sonic was not nominated for Album of the Year — that Grammy went to Jon Batiste for We Are.

Black artists weren’t always so frequently celebrated in the key main categories.  As recently as 2015, there were no songs performed by Black artists in the Song of the Year or Record of the Year categories.  And wins for Black artists in the main categories have been infrequent through many of the past 6 decades+ of the Awards.

The Grammys, of course, have honored Black artists in the R&B and Hip Hop categories.  And they did it with Silk Sonic and “Leave The Door Open” last night too, as it tied with Jazmine Sullivan for Best R&B Performance and won in one more singles category that wasn’t televised — Best R&B Song.

In today’s #MusicMonday playlist, Grammys’ Got Soul: All the Grammy R&B Song Winners,” we’re celebrating all those great tunes in the longest consistently running R&B Grammy category.

It’s a favorite sport of music fans to second guess whether  the Grammys got it right or not, but, as you’ll hear in today’s list, almost all the winners have ended up being — like “Leave The Door Open” is already — truly classic jams.

If you’ve been watching the Grammys for years, you know by now that the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences gives awards in Performance and Record categories (which go to the artists) and in the Song category (going to the songwriters – but not the artist, unless they also wrote the song).

In the twists and turns of the Grammy Awards, a single R&B Performance of the Year honor has actually not been given out consistently through the years.

Although it was awarded up through most of the ’60s (completely ignoring Motown and Stax, by the way, in favor of Ray Charles), it was then discontinued in favor of separate performance categories for Male R&B Performance, Female R&B Performance and Duo or Group R&B Performance – three categories that awarded artists up until 2011, when they were combined once again into a collective R&B Performance of the Year Award.

So R&B Song of the Year essentially became a unique declaration of the Grammys’ top choice in R&B music, starting in 1969 with Otis Redding‘s “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” and continuing to today.

It’s clear that the Grammys favored some trends and artists more than others.  After ignoring Motown in the 1960s, Grammy jumped into Motown fandom in the 1970s with Stevie Wonder and The Temptations – but in the process managed to almost completely ignore Philly Soul.

The Academy began to embrace Disco, but while awarding a Donna Summer song one year, the Grammy voters managed to relegate all the biggest Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards compositions to runner-up status through the years, yet somehow ended up awarding the R&B Song of the Year in 1978 to Leo Sayer‘s “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” over The Commodores’ “Easy” and “Brick House,” Thelma Houston‘s “Don’t Leave Me This Way” and The Emotions’ “Best of My Love.”

By the 1980s, the Grammys favored slick adult soul in the vein of Luther Vandross, Stephanie Mills, Earth, Wind & Fire’s “After the Love Has Gone” and George Benson over more funky fare.

In fact, Prince won the R&B Song Grammy for penning “I Feel For You” when it was a hit for Chaka Khan. But his first R&B Song of the Year nomination for one of his own recordings – for “Kiss” in 1987 – was defeated by Anita Baker‘s breakthrough “Sweet Love.”

The 1990s brought multiple wins for Babyface compositions for Boyz II Men and Whitney Houston, a win for Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis for their work with Janet Jackson, and yes, a win for R. Kelly.

And, if you wanted to win a R&B Song Grammy in the 2000s, you should have been writing songs for female performers, because the decade’s honorees were dominated by Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Destiny’s Child and Beyoncé tunes.

In the past decade, as hip hop has continued to dominate the story of Black artists crossing over to the mainstream, R&B crossover success on the charts has declined, along with the reach of R&B radio.

The Grammys have begun awarding more rootsy and alternative R&B fare.  While the vast majority of all the winning songs for decades had been major R&B and often major pop hits, multiple winners in the past decade have not even hit the Top 10 on Billboard R&B charts, including songs from Robert Glasper, P.J. Morton, D’Angelo and John Legend with the Roots.

Grammy finally seems to be putting musical achievement over sales figures. We hope you’ll enjoy this chronological journey through R&B history.

“Black Americana”: Traditional and Modern Takes on Patriotic Songs by African American Artists (LISTEN)

[Photos: Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock; Marian Anderson at Lincoln Memorial; Whitney Houston at Super Bowl XXV]

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Yesterday was a good day. As Joe Biden and Kamala Harris became President-Elect and Vice President-Elect of the United States of America, in several cities across the nation literal dancing broke out in the streets. So many people from all stripes of life — Black, Brown, white, Asian, Indigenous — were together exhibiting their joy at the victory.

The massive turnout — in the middle of a surging pandemic, no less — to celebrate the repudiation of the path towards division and exclusion in favor of the path towards inclusivity and diversity was the most patriotic thing I’ve witnessed on a national level in a long time. And so many were carrying and waving American flags.

It’s being acknowledged in the media – as well as in President Elect Biden’s speech – how vital the African American community was in saving this nation’s democracy.  The visuals and the fireworks brought home for me just how much at heart Black people are patriots.

Even though from jump we have been treated unjustly, cruelly, unfairly — we have worked tirelessly to fight for the ideals America is supposed to stand for. Justice. Freedom. Equality. Perhaps we believe in democracy the most because we have always been the most vulnerable when it doesn’t exist.

Hearing Vice President-Elect Harris strut out to Mary J. Blige‘s “Work That” and President Elect Biden sprint out to Bruce Springsteen‘s “We Take Care of Our Own” before their respective speeches, then enjoy the crowd and fireworks to some Jackie Wilson, Coldplay, Hall & Oates and Tina Turner, made me think about some of my favorite takes on patriotic American songs by African American artists that could have been cool to play as well. (My most recent favorite from the past few years? Jon Batiste‘s inventive, unexpectedly moving version of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”)

When my sister Lesa texted me a song she’d been listening to all day — “This Land Is Our Land” by Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings — my thoughts turned to action and I started making the playlist below I call “Black Americana” for inspiration now and in the months to come:

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Composer Jon Batiste Turns Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Life Into a Broadway Musical

Jon Batiste and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Black-and-white image of Black man in black leather jacket and shirt in front of background with text. Black-and-white image of Black man with black dredlocs in suit on white wall
Jon Batiste and Jean-Michel Basquiat. (Brad Barket/Getty Images; Andy Warhol/Colorlines Screenshot from Facebook)

Composer Jon Batiste is set to bring the life of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat to the stage via a new Broadway musical. The New Orleans-bred musician and bandleader of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” announced the show on Tuesday (September 25):

Deadline reports that Batiste will collaborate with stage producers Barbara and Alan D. Marks (The Encounter”) and director John Doyle (“The Color Purple” revival) on the untitled project. The team partnered with the late Haitian- and Puerto Rican-American artist’s estate, which granted rights to use his original art and personal archival material in the musical.

“Over the years, many people have approached us about telling our brother’s story on stage,” sisters Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux, who administer their brother’s estate, told Deadline. “But having discussed this project with the Marks over many months, our interest was piqued once we understood that their approach to telling our brother’s story treats his life, his art and his legacy with respect and passion. With Jon Batiste and John Doyle leading the creative team, we are thrilled with the possibilities. We cannot wait to begin the developmental process. Broadway is a new world for us, and we look forward to sharing our brother’s life and art.”

Batiste wants the musical to both capture Basquiat’s story and inspire other artists to channel his creative spirit.

“I want people to leave this show inspired to create. I want them to not only learn about Jean-Michel Basquiat, an innovator, but to also feel the visceral thrill of the creative process and to deepen and discover their own creativity,” he told Deadline. “We have an opportunity to tell a truly profound story, full of emotional highs and lows, with unbelievable art at the center. I’m honored to work with veteran storyteller John Doyle, the Marks and the Basquiat family. We are assembling a team to help craft a boundary pushing masterpiece inspired by a true American original.”

Source: https://www.colorlines.com/articles/jon-batiste-turns-jean-michel-basquiats-life-broadway-musical