Category: Whats Buzzing in the Streets

Sharon Lafaye Jones (May 4, 1956 – November 18, 2016) was an American soul and funk singer. She was the lead singer of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, a soul and funk band based in Brooklyn, New York. Jones experienced breakthrough success relatively late in life, releasing her first record when she was 40 years old. In 2014, Jones was nominated for her first Grammy, in the category Best R&B Album, for Give the People What They Want.Jones was born in Augusta, Georgia, the daughter of Ella Mae Price Jones and Charlie Jones, living in adjacent North Augusta, South Carolina. Jones was the youngest of six children; her siblings are Dora, Charles, Ike, Willa and Henry Jones’s mother raised her deceased sister’s four children as well as her own. She moved the family to New York City when Sharon was a young child. As children, she and her brothers would often imitate the singing and dancing of James Brown. Her mother happened to know Brown, who was also from Augusta.Jones grew up in the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. In 1975, she graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn. She attended Brooklyn College.A regular gospel singer in church, during the early 1970s Jones often entered talent shows backed by local funk bands. Session work then continued with backing vocals, often credited to Lafaye Jones, but in the absence of any recording contract as a solo singer, she spent many years working as a corrections officer at Rikers Island and as an armored car guard for Wells Fargo, until receiving a mid-life career break in 1996 after she appeared on a session backing the soul and deep funk legend Lee Fields.The session was organized by Gabriel Roth and Philippe Lehman, then the owner of the now-defunct French record label Pure Records. Jones was the only one of three singers called to the session to show up. Having completed all the backing parts herself, Roth and Lehman were suitably impressed with her performance and recorded “Switchblade”, a solo track with Jones. This track and “The Landlord” were included on the Soul Providers’ album Soul Tequila, released by Lehman on Pure circa 1996. The Soul Providers—with members of the Brooklyn bands Antibalas and the Mighty Imperials—later formed the Dap-Kings, who became Jones’s regular backing band.Lehman and Roth started a new label based in Brooklyn, Desco Records, now also defunct. Soul Tequila was re-released as Gimme the Paw, which omitted “The Landlord” but kept “Switchblade”. Jones recorded and released three 45-rpm singles for Desco: “Damn It’s Hot” part 1 backed by part 2, “Bump N Touch” part 1 backed by “Hook and Sling Meets the Funky Superfly” (a medley cover of tracks by Eddie Bo and Bobby Williams), and “You Better Think Twice” backed by “I Got the Feeling” (a James Brown cover). The singles gained some notice among 45 soul and funk collectors, particularly because in the early days of Desco Records some collectors may have believed them to be originals from the early seventies, as they were not dated. These singles were also released on a compilation CD, the Desco Funk 45′ Collection, with tracks by various other artists in the Desco stable. Desco had established a firm reputation among enthusiasts. Desco continued to release 45-rpm singles and also released LPs by Lee Fields, the Sugarman 3, the Daktaris and the Mighty Imperials as well as a further compilation of funk 45s. The Mighty Imperials album was the last release on the Desco label, and Lehman and Roth parted ways in 2000. Lehman started another independent label, Soul Fire Records, now also defunct. Roth went on to start Daptone Records with the saxophonist Neal Sugarman of Sugarman.Launched on the back of the popularity of Desco Records, Daptone Records’ first release was a full-length album by Sharon Jones. A new band, the Dap-Kings, was formed from the former members of the Soul Providers and the Mighty Imperials. Some of the musicians went on to record for Lehman’s Soul Fire label, while some formed the Budos Band, an Afro-beat band. From the original Soul Providers, Roth (also known as Bosco Mann) on bass, guitarist and emcee Binky Griptite, percussionist Fernando Velez, trumpet player Anda Szilagyi and organist Earl Maxton were joined by original Mighty Imperials saxophonist Leon Michels and drummer Homer Steinweiss, plus Neal Sugarman from Sugarman 3, to form The Dap-Kings.In 2002, under the name Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, the group released the album Dap Dippin’ with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, for which they received immediate attention and acclaim from enthusiasts, DJs and collectors. With three more albums under their belt, Naturally (2005), 100 Days, 100 Nights (2007) and I Learned the Hard Way (2010) they are seen by many as the spearhead of a revival of soul and funk. In 2015, during an interview with Billboard about her Grammy nomination, Jones discussed her commitment to the Daptone Label, an independent company. She cited artistic freedom and the commitment to the band.Jones had a small part in the 2007 film The Great Debaters, starring Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker, in which she played Lila, a juke joint singer. Her performance of Lucille Bogan’s “That’s What My Baby Likes” is featured in the film, and additional covers by Jones of songs from the 1930s are included on the film’s soundtrack. In 2015, a documentary titled Miss Sharon Jones!, directed by Barbara Kopple, debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival.It was announced on June 3, 2013, that Jones had been diagnosed with bile duct cancer and had undergone surgery, which forced her to postpone the release of the group’s fifth album, Give the People What They Want. The diagnosis was later changed to stage II pancreatic cancer, for which Jones had surgery on her liver and underwent chemotherapy. The chemotherapy caused hair loss, and for a time she performed bald, refusing to wear wigs.During the screening of her documentary at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, Jones revealed that her cancer had returned, and that she would be undergoing chemotherapy again. She suffered a stroke while watching the 2016 United States presidential election results and another the following day. Jones remained alert and lucid during the initial period of her hospital stay, jokingly claiming that the news of Donald Trump’s victory was responsible for her stroke.Jones died on November 18, 2016, in Cooperstown, New York, aged 60.

Written by Dianne Washington

Nick Ashford was born on this date in 1941. He was a Black songwriting/production and recording artist.Nickolas Ashford was born in Fairfield, South Carolina. He was raised in Willow Run, Michigan and moved to New York City to pursue a dance career. He and Valarie Simpson met at Harlem’s White Rock Baptist Church in 1963 and became one of the most successful 20th century contemporary music composers in the world.Ashford & Simpson’s career as recording artists began in the early 1960s as part of the gospel group The Followers, with whom they recorded the album Gospel Meeting (on Forum Circle), later issued as Meetin’ The Followers (on Roulette Records). The LP contains their vocals and also four Ashford compositions. In 1964, they recorded “I’ll Find You”, as “Valerie & Nick” This was followed by several obscure singles recorded by Ashford on the Glover, Verve and ABC labels.After mild success, they joined aspiring solo artist and former member of the Ikettes, Joshie Jo Armstead, at the Scepter/Wand label where their compositions were recorded by Ronnie Milsap (“Never Had It So Good”), Maxine Brown (“One Step At A Time”), as well as the Shirelles and Chuck Jackson.Ashford and Simpson essentially had two careers: one writing and producing and the other as singers and performers. In their career in the mid-1960s they wrote for artists such as The 5th Dimension (“California Soul”), Aretha Franklin (“Cry Like A Baby”), and Ray Charles (“Let’s Go Get Stoned” and “I Don’t Need No Doctor”). Their work with Charles brought them to the attention of Motown chief Berry Gordy.In 1966, Ashford & Simpson joined the Motown staff and were paired with the vocal duo Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. They wrote and/or produced all but one of the late-1960s Gaye/Terrell singles, including hits such as the original version of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”, “Your Precious Love”, “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing”, and “You’re All I Need to Get By”. According to Gaye in the book Divided Soul, Simpson did most of the vocals on the last album he did with Terrell, Easy, as a way for Terrell’s family to have additional income as she was battling an ultimately fatal brain tumor. (Simpson is quoted as denying this in a book written by Terrell’s sister Ludie Montgomery.)Ashford & Simpson wrote and produced almost all the songs on three 1970s albums for former Supreme Diana Ross, including her first solo album Diana Ross (“Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand)” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”), Surrender (“Remember Me”), and The Boss. Other Motown artists whom Ashford & Simpson worked with include Gladys Knight & The Pips (“Didn’t You Know You’d Have to Cry Sometime”, “The Landlord”, “Bourgie, Bourgie”, and “Taste of Bitter Love”), Smokey Robinson & The Miracles (“Who’s Gonna Take the Blame”), The Marvelettes (“Destination:Anywhere”), The Supremes (“Some Things You Never Get Used To”), and The Dynamic Superiors (“Shoe, Shoe Shine”).Away from Motown, artists with whom Ashford & Simpson had hits were Teddy Pendergrass (“Is It Still Good to You”), The Brothers Johnson (“Ride-O-Rocket”), Chaka Khan, both on her own (“I’m Every Woman” and “Clouds”), and Rufus (“Keep It Comin'” and “Ain’t Nothin’ But a Maybe”). After concentrating on working with other artists, Simpson was the featured soloist on the songs “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “What’s Going On” on the Quincy Jones albums Gula Matari in 1970, and its follow-up, Smackwater Jack’.’ Simpson subsequently recorded two solo LPs for Motown: Valerie Simpson Exposed in 1971, and, the following year, Valerie Simpson, which included the single “Silly Wasn’t I”, which was later sampled on 50 Cent’s “Best Friend” from the movie Get Rich or Die Tryin’. The song was also sampled by 9th Wonder on Murs’s “Silly Girl” in the album Murray’s Revenge. Ashford & Simpson were featured singing selections from Simpson’s solo albums on the PBS TV show Soul!, hosted by Ellis Haizlip in 1971. Throughout his career, Ashford played tambourine and percussion on hundreds of sessions and can be heard on dozens of Motown classics, including “What’s Goin’ On by Marvin Gaye.In 1974, Ashford & Valarie Simpson married and resumed their career as a duo with the Warner Bros. album, Gimme Something Real. This was followed by the hit singles, “Don’t Cost You Nothin'” (1977), “It Seems To Hang On” (1978), “Is It Still Good to Ya” (1978), “Found a Cure” (1979), “Street Corner” (1982), and their biggest hit, “Solid”, released in 1984. Also during that time (1978) they were featured as vocalists, along with Chaka Khan, on the hit single “Stuff Like That” from Quincy Jones’ Sounds… And Stuff Like That album and contributed to the writing of the soundtrack to The Wiz.On his own, Ashford (along with Frank Wilson), produced “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me”, which Diana Ross & the Supremes recorded in collaboration with the Temptations in 1968. He also appeared in the movie New Jack City (1991), as Reverend Oates, an ordained minister who was part of Nino Brown’s entourage. In 1996, Ashford & Simpson opened the restaurant and live entertainment venue, Sugar Bar in New York City, which has an open mic on Thursday nights, where performers have included Queen Latifah and Felicia Collins. That same year they recorded the album Been Found with poet Maya Angelou.In 2007, they, along with Tina Turner, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Sidney Poitier, director Spike Lee, and comedian Chris Tucker accompanied Oprah Winfrey when she opened her Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. They were given writing credit on Amy Winehouse’s 2007 CD Back to Black for the single “Tears Dry On Their Own”. The track is based on a sample of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s 1967 Motown classic hit “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”. They had began performing their act in small, intimate venues, such as Feinstein’s at the Regency in New York and the Rrazz Room in San Francisco, and in January 2009, they released a CD and DVD of their live performances titled The Real Thing. On June 22, 2009, they made a guest performance at a party at Tribeca Rooftop, New York, to celebrate Virgin Atlantic’s birthday party. They also made their first appearance in Tokyo, Japan, in November 2009, and performed 8 shows in 4 days at Blue Note Tokyo.Nick Ashford died in New York on August 22, 2011, of complications from throat cancer. His wife and two daughters Nicole and Asia survive him.

Written by Dianne Washington

Angela Tomasa Bofill (born May 3, 1954) is an American R&B and jazz singer-songwriter.Angela Bofill was born to a Cuban father and an Puerto Rican mother on Fox Street in the Bronx. She grew up listening to Latin music and was also inspired by African-American performers. Her weekends were taken up studying classical music and singing in a city chorus. It was as a teenager that her professional singing began.She performed with Ricardo Marrero & the Group and Dance Theater of Harlem chorus before being introduced to Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen of the jazz label GRP Records by Dave Valentin, her friend and jazz flutist. Grusin and Rosen signed Bofill and produced her first album, Angie, in 1978. Angie was well received both critically and commercially and included the chart single “This Time I’ll Be Sweeter” (co-written by Gwen Guthrie and Haras Fyre), and Bofill’s sprawling jazz composition, “Under the Moon and Over the Sky”.Less than a year later, a second album, Angel of the Night was released and outperformed its predecessor. The album included the chart singles “What I Wouldn’t Do (For the Love of You)” and the up tempo title track, as well as the song “I Try”, written by Bofill and covered by Will Downing in 1991. The reception of these albums positioned Bofill as one of the first Latina singers to find success in the R&B and jazz markets.Clive Davis, the head of Arista Records, showed interest in Bofill. Arista had a distribution deal with GRP. Bofill switched labels for her next album, Something About You (1981). Produced by Narada Michael Walden, the album was an attempt to move Bofill into mainstream R&B and pop music. It didn’t perform as well as previous releases, despite the singles “Holdin’ Out for Love” and the title track, which both reached the R&B Top 40.The following year, she and Walden reunited for Too Tough. The title song reached No. 5 on the R&B chart and spent four weeks at No. 2 on the Dance chart. A follow-up single, “Tonight I Give In”, reached the Top 20. Several months later, Bofill released her final collaboration with Walden, Teaser. The album failed to match the success of Too Tough but did produce one Top 20 R&B hit, “I’m On Your Side”, which has been covered by several artists, most notably Jennifer Holliday, who had a Top 10 hit with it in 1991.Bofill recorded two more albums for Arista with the help of The System and George Duke before leaving the label in the mid-1980s. Following the birth of her daughter, she moved to Capitol Records and the producer Norman Connors for Intuition (1988), which produced her last significant chart success, a cover of Gino Vannelli’s “I Just Wanna Stop”, which reached No. 11 on the R&B chart. She recorded three more albums over the next eight years and provided backing vocals on albums for Diana Ross and Kirk Whalum and for Connors’s Eternity (2000). She performed live (with a sizable audience internationally, particularly in Asia) and appeared in the stage plays God Don’t Like Ugly and What a Man Wants, What a Man Needs. She also toured the US and Europe in multi-artist jazz shows.Bofill suffered a stroke on January 10, 2006 and was paralyzed on her left side. She convalesced at Sutter Hospital in Santa Rosa, California, and was released from intensive care on January 15, requiring speech and physical therapy. She lacked health insurance, and a benefit concert was organized to pay her hospital bills. The show was planned by Rich Engel, her manager, and the New York radio stations Kiss FM and WFAN-FM,. It took place on March 11, 2006, at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, New Jersey. Similar events followed, and other aid was sought from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. Her album Live from Manila (recorded in September 2004) was released during this time. She suffered another stroke in July 2007 which required therapy and left both her speech and mobility impaired.Although Bofill lost the ability to sing after her second stroke, she returned to the stage, at the suggestion of Engel, for “The Angela Bofill Experience”. In the show, she recounted her life and career and was joined by Maysa Leak, Phil Perry, and Melba Moore, who performed her biggest hits and signature songs. In 2012, she was profiled and interviewed for the TV One documentary series, Unsung.Bofill was married to a country music artist Rick Vincent from 1984 until 1994 and together they have a daughter, Shauna.Bofill suffered a stroke on January 10, 2006 and was paralyzed on her left side. She convalesced at Sutter Hospital in Santa Rosa, California, and was released from intensive care on January 15, requiring speech and physical therapy. She lacked health insurance, and a benefit concert was organized to pay her hospital bills.The show was planned by Rich Engel, her manager, and the New York radio stations Kiss FM and WFAN-FM,. It took place on March 11, 2006, at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, New Jersey. Similar events followed, and other aid was sought from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. Her album Live from Manila (recorded in September 2004) was released during this time. Bofill suffered a second stroke in July 2007 which required therapy and left both her speech and mobility impaired.

Written by Dianne Washington

On this date in 1999, publication of The Boondocks is celebrated. This is an African American adult animated sitcom. The Boondocks is created by Aaron McGruder for Cartoon Network’s late-night programming block, Adult Swim. It is based upon his comic strip of the same name. The series premiered on November 6, 2005. The show begins with a Black family, the Freemans, settling into the fictional, friendly, and overall white suburb of Woodcrest. The perspective offered by this mixture of cultures, lifestyles, social classes, stereotypes, viewpoints, and racialized identities provides for much of the series’ satire, comedy, and conflict.The first series ended in 2014 with a total of 55 episodes over the course of the show’s four seasons, the last of which was produced without any involvement from McGruder. The series also has aired in syndication outside the United States and has been released on various DVD sets and other forms of home media. In June 2019, Sony Pictures Animation began producing a reboot of the television series to premiere in 2020 with McGruder’s involvement. On September 18, 2019, it was announced that HBO Max had picked up the reboot with a two-season order. Each season is set to consist of twelve episodes.

Written Dianne Washington