James Brown’s Last Performance

James Brown

This is James Brown’s performance at the UK Music Hall of Fame in November.

James Brown Popcorn

James Brown Popcorn

Before James Brown music focused on the 2nd and 4th beat. After James Brown the world rocked to the 1st and 3rd beat. From him we all know that everything is on the one. This Christmas was a Black (cultural) Christmas and here is a clip of him in his majesty. RIP Godfather.

RIP:James Brown

The Godfather of Soul went home this morning. What can you say about one of the grand innovators of music that has not already been said?

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Incognito “Bees+Things+Flowers” 12/26 (Narada Jazz/ Blue Note Label Group)

Anyone paying attention to the upper echelon of soul music’s ever changing face knows the name Incognito. More than the moniker of a great band, Incognito is a brand – a guaranteed one-stop for sophisticated, uplifting U.K.-spun soul-jazz, stamped by a cavalcade of top-notch vocal talent, sweeping arrangements for rhythm section, horns and strings, substance-fueled lyrical content and the unflagging leadership of guitarist/songwriter Jean-Paul Maunick, affectionately known as “Bluey.”

Apple Corps LTD/Capitol Records To Release The Beatles “Love” Album In Stereo 5.1 On November 21, 2006

Apple Corps Ltd/Capitol Records are to release the Beatles LOVE album in stereo and 5.1 November 21st. This will be the first Beatles album available in 5.1

RIP Jay McShann

Jay McShann’s big band defined Kansa City’s jazz of the ’30s and ’40s. The bluesy boogie-woogie flights of his orchestra once featured a young Charlie Parker. His earthy style co-ruled the city with Count Basie.

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Jazz Films

There are a lot of jazz films and now that Don Cheadle is bringing Miles Davis to the screen I thought I would post a few titles to pay homage to the better ones. This is not a definitive list but a conversation starter for a genre of film that seemingly only gets cultish attention. JazzonFilm.com has a nice listing of films that are connected to the music.

Shadows

John Cassavete’s autonomous feature debuted in 1960 and gets credit for heading the independent film movement in America. The director initially touted the film as a living example of the jazz aesthetic by letting the actors spontaneously create their lines. He admitted later that much of the movie was scripted. But it is worth the view for its individualism and the mostly Charles Mingus’s soundtrack.

Don Cheadle To Play Miles Davis

Actor Don Cheadle is confirmed to direct and act in a film about jazz great Miles Davis. Cheadle is a fine actor who will have the challenge of presenting Davis’s complex character that drove the musician to create six different styles of jazz, defy the police, survive heroin addiction and after all that declare jazz dead. He believed Prince was the future of pop music and never stopped exploring new sounds. If only the planned collaboration with him and Jimi Hendrix had materialized. Fans think his life is too tough for film and better suited for a book. The film will speak for itself but Quincy Troupe’s read more book with Miles is a good way to get started.
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Omar Live Performance

Omar Lye Fook – Your Mess

Omar!

Omar:Soul Singer

In the beginning of Omar’s professional recording career he was a hot new London underground soul singer with a song on his father’s Kongo label, “Mr.Postman/You And Me.” A decade plus and six albums to date Omar is still a hot new underground singer to most of the world. His rich layered soul is shared among his fans like a vintage for hipsters. “There’s Nothing Like This” was a hit in his homeland and established him as the Father of Nu British Soul. Breezy falsetto weaved into curtains of copacectic funk samples, carefree courtship, strings, organs and gentle romance give all of his songs the feeling of a spring day. Somewhere within the buffered masculinities of Luther, Ron Isley and Stevie a preference for writing songs softly approaching romance gives Omar’s music love optimism. His self-contained sound has attracted soul notables on both sides of the Atlantic. Common’s musically daring Electric Circus secured a guest appearance from the singer who also collaborated with eminent soulsters David Frank, Lamont Dozier and Leon Ware.