Whats Buzzing in the Streets – Page 27

Janet Jackson

Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and dancer. A prominent figure in popular culture, she is noted for her sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows. The tenth and youngest child of the Jackson family, she began her career with the variety television series The Jacksons in 1976 and went on to appear in other television shows throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, including Good Times, Diff’rent Strokes, and Fame. After signing a recording contract with A&M Records in 1982, she became a pop icon following the release of her third and fourth studio albums Control (1986) and Rhythm Nation 1814 (1989). Her collaborations with record producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis incorporated elements of rhythm and blues, funk, disco, rap, and industrial beats, which led to crossover success in popular music. Her cutting-edge sound and complex choreography became a catalyst in the growth of MTV, enabling her to rise to prominence while breaking gender and racial barriers in the process. Lyrical content which focused on social issues set her reputation as a role model for youth.In 1991, Jackson signed the first of two record-breaking multimillion-dollar contracts with Virgin Records, establishing her as one of the highest-paid artists in the industry. Prior to her first studio project with Virgin, she appeared in her first of several lead film roles in Poetic Justice (1993). Her two studio albums which followed, Janet (1993) and The Velvet Rope (1997), saw her develop a public image as a sex symbol. These records, along with their promotional music videos and live performances in concert tours, branded Jackson as one of the world’s most erotic performers, garnering both criticism and praise. By the end of the 1990s, she was named by Billboard magazine as the second most successful recording artist of the decade after Mariah Carey. The release of her seventh studio album All for You in 2001 coincided with a celebration of her impact on the recording industry as the subject of the inaugural MTV Icon special.Backlash from the 2004 Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy resulted in an industry blacklisting under the direction of Les Moonves, then-CEO of CBS Corporation. Jackson subsequently experienced reduced radio airplay, televised promotion and sales figures from that point forward. After parting ways with Virgin Records, she released her tenth studio album Discipline (2008), her first and only album with Island Records. In 2015, she partnered with BMG Rights Management to launch her own record label, Rhythm Nation, and released her eleventh studio album Unbreakable the same year. Since then she has continued to release music as an independent artist.Having sold over 100 million records, Jackson is one of the world’s best-selling music artists. She has amassed an extensive catalog, with singles such as “Nasty”, “Rhythm Nation”, “That’s the Way Love Goes”, “Together Again”, and “All for You”; she holds the record for the most consecutive top-ten entries on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart by a female artist with 18. She is also the only artist in the history of the chart to have seven commercial singles from one album (Rhythm Nation 1814) peak within the top five positions. In 2008, Billboard placed her number seven on its list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists, and in 2010 ranked her fifth among the “Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years”. In December 2016, the magazine named her the second most successful dance club artist after Madonna. One of the world’s most awarded artists, her accolades include 5 Grammy Awards, 11 Billboard Music Awards, 11 American Music Awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and 8 Guinness World Records entries. In 2019, she was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Jackson has been cited as an inspiration among numerous performers and credited with elevating a standard of sound, showmanship and sex appeal expected of pop stars.

Written by Dianne Jackson

Sammy Davis Jr

Samuel George “Sammy” Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American entertainer. Primarily a dancer and singer, he was also an actor of stage and screen, musician, and impressionist, noted for his impersonations of actors, musicians and other celebrities. At the age of three Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father and Will Mastin as the Will Mastin Trio, which toured nationally. After military service Davis returned to the trio. Davis became an overnight sensation following a nightclub performance at Ciro’s (in West Hollywood, California) after the 1951 Academy Awards. With the trio, he became a recording artist. In 1954, he lost his left eye in an automobile accident, and several years later, he converted to Judaism.Davis died in Beverly Hills, California, on May 16, 1990 at age 64, of complications from throat cancer. Earlier, when he was told that surgery (laryngectomy) offered him the best chance of survival, Davis replied he would rather keep his voice than have a part of his throat removed; he subsequently was treated with a combination of chemotherapy and radiation. However, a few weeks prior to his death, his entire larynx was removed during surgery. He was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, next to his father and Will Mastin.On May 18, 1990, two days after Davis’s death, the neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip were darkened for ten minutes as a tribute to him. He was survived by his wife, his daughter, his sons, his sister, his mother, his grandmother, and two grandchildren.

Written by Dianne Washington

Stevie Wonder

This date marks the birth of Stevie Wonder in 1950. He is an African American singer and songwriter, who had his first success on the Motown label at age 13. He was born Steveland Morris in Saginaw, MI. Blind since infancy, Wonder began playing the piano at the age of 4 and was a proficient singer and instrumentalist by the age of 13, when his first hit, “Fingertips Part 2” in 1963, was released by Motown, at which time he was given his professional name. He produced the albums “Signed, Sealed and Delivered” (1970) and “Where I’m Coming From” (1971), the latter written entirely by Wonder and his wife, Syreeta Wright. On the album “Music of the Mind” (1972) he used modern recording technology to allow him to play most of the instrumental accompaniments. Wonder experimented with synthesizers and was one of the first musicians to make extensive use of electronic music in Black American song. A multi-instrumentalist, Wonder plays the piano, synthesizer, talk box, harmonica, congas, drums, bongos, bass guitar, organ, melodica, and clarinet. “Talking Book” (1972), an album on which he played all the instruments and sang all the vocal parts, contained the hit singles “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” and “Superstition,” and he won several Grammy Awards for “Talking Book” and his next album, “Innervisions “in 1973. The same year he survived a near-fatal automobile accident. More Grammy Awards followed for the albums “Songs in the Key of Life” (1976), which contains the hit song “Sir Duke,” a celebratory tribute to American jazz composer Duke Ellington; and “In Square Circle” (1985). Wonder’s other albums include “Looking Back” (1977); “Hotter than July” (1980); “Characters” (1987); “Jungle Fever” (1991); the sound track to a motion picture by American director Spike Lee; and “Conversation Peace” (1995). In 1996 Wonder won three more Grammy Awards: for best male rhythm-and-blues vocalist, best song, and for lifetime achievement. Wonder has also been active in such social causes as the anti-apartheid movement, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and the Retinitis Pigmentosa Foundation. An advocate of Black civil rights, Wonder spearheaded the effort to institute a national holiday in honor of the birthday of clergyman and civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr.A prominent figure in popular music during the latter half of the 20th century, Wonder has recorded more than 30 U.S. top ten hits and won 25 Grammy Awards (the most ever won by a solo artist) as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award. He has also won an Academy Award for Best Song, and been inducted into both the Rock and Roll and Songwriters halls of fame. He has also been awarded the Polar Music Prize. American music magazine Rolling Stone named him the ninth greatest singer of all time. In June 2009 he became the fourth artist to receive the Montreal Jazz Festival Spirit Award.[80]He has had ten U.S. number-one hits on the pop charts as well as 20 R&B number one hits, and has sold over 100 million records, 19.5 million of which are albums; he is one of the top 60 best-selling music artists with combined sales of singles and albums. Wonder has recorded several critically acclaimed albums and hit singles, and writes and produces songs for many of his label mates and outside artists as well. Wonder plays the piano, synthesizer, harmonica, congas, drums, bongos, organ, melodica and Clavinet. In his childhood, he was best known for his harmonica work, but today he is better known for his keyboard skills and vocal ability. Wonder was the first Motown artist and second African-American musician to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song, which he won for his 1984 hit single “I Just Called to Say I Love You” from the movie The Woman in Red.Wonder’s “classic period” is generally agreed to be between 1972 and 1977. Some observers see in 1971’s Where I’m Coming From certain indications of the beginning of the classic period, such as its new funky keyboard style which Wonder used throughout the classic period. Some determine Wonder’s first “classic” album to be 1972’s Music of My Mind, on which he attained personal control of production, and on which he programmed a series of songs integrated with one another to make a concept album.[84] Others skip over early 1972 and determine the beginning of the classic period to be Talking Book in late 1972, the album in which Wonder “hit his stride”.His classic 1970s albums were very influential on the music world: the 1983 Rolling Stone Record Guide said they “pioneered stylistic approaches that helped to determine the shape of pop music for the next decade”; Rolling Stone’s 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time included four of the five albums, with three in the top 90; and in 2005, Kanye West said of his own work, “I’m not trying to compete with what’s out there now. I’m really trying to compete with Inner visions and Songs in the Key of Life. It sounds musically blasphemous to say something like that, but why not set that as your bar?”

Written by Dianne Washington

Farrakhan

On this date in 1933, Louis Farrakhan was born. He is a Black religious leader in the NOI Muslim community. Born in the Bronx New York, the younger of two sons of Sarah Mae Manning and Percival Clark, immigrants from the Anglo-Caribbean islands. His mother was born in Saint Kitts, while his father was Jamaican. The couple separated before their second son was born. He was an outstanding student at Boston English High School and then attended Winston-Salem Teacher’s College. Farrakhan was an excellent musician; he played the violin and was a calypso singer. It was as a singer that he earned his livelihood before converting to the Nation of Islam (NOI) in the 1950s. He quickly worked his way up to a leadership position, becoming the minister of the Boston mosque.He loudly denounced Malcolm X after the latter split with Elijah Muhammad in 1963. He soon assumed leadership of the Harlem mosque, which Malcolm had previously led. After Elijah Muhammad’s death in 1975, he briefly supported Muhammad’s son and designated successor, Warith Muhammad, as leader of the Nation of Islam. Shortly after Warith Muhammad began accepting whites as members within the Nation of Islam, now renamed the World Community of Al-Islam in the West, Farrakhan split from him and established a rival organization with about 10,000 members.Farrakhan’s support for Jesse Jackson’s presidential candidacy in 1984 quickly became an issue after Farrakhan made several controversial statements, most notably calling Judaism a “gutter religion.” In June 1997, he wrote Jude Wanniski with a public correction of the New York Times article, published on April 5, 2000.Overshadowed in the controversy was the involvement of Nation of Islam leaders in American electoral politics for the first time. Previously, Black Muslims had generally followed Elijah Muhammad’s counsel not to vote or to take part in political campaigns. Instead the NOI encouraged the following: “The so-called Negro in America must elect his own political leaders and his own candidates.”In January 1995, Qubilah Bahiyah Shabazz, daughter of slain Black nationalist leader Malcolm X, was arrested and charged with trying to hire an FBI informant to kill Farrakhan, who some believe was involved in the 1965 assassination of her father. Farrakhan publicly defended Shabazz, claiming that the charges were an FBI attempt to entrap her. On May 1, 1995, Shabazz avoided a trial and possible prison sentence by accepting responsibility for the plot. The court ordered her to seek psychiatric counseling, enter a drug and alcohol treatment program, and to obtain a steady job.On October 16, 1995, African American men from across the United States convened in Washington D.C. for the Million Man March, which was organized by Farrakhan. Billed as a “holy day of atonement and reconciliation,” marchers were urged to make a commitment to improve themselves, their families, and their communities. Those who could not attend the march were urged to stay home from work and avoid spending money at businesses as a show of solidarity with the marchers. Farrakhan closed the march with a two-hour speech in which he condemned the doctrine of white supremacy and claimed that there are still “two Americas, one Black, and one White, separate and unequal.” He also challenged the marchers to return home and work to make their communities “safe and decent places to live.”Farrakhan embarked on a controversial 18-nation tour of Africa and the Middle East in early 1996. During the tour, he visited Iran and Libya, nations that the United States government believes support international terrorism. His journey was designed to promote peace and reconciliation, yet Farrakhan was widely criticized by U.S. officials for several anti-American statements he made while overseas. On the last day of February 2004, he was scheduled to hold a rally in Washington DC in support of Reparations.On October 19, 2008, Minister Farrakhan opened the doors and grounds of Mosque Maryam. This was a Rededication Ceremony themed “A New Beginning.” This date also served as the commemoration of the 13th Anniversary of the Million Man March and Holy Day of Atonement. In December 2013, Farrakhan announced that he had not appeared publicly for two months because he had suffered a heart attack in October of that year.

Written by Dianne Washington

The Legacy of DJ Swanny River

For the first time since I’ve been doing these dope interviews on really dope individuals, I’m really proud and excited to do this one especially. This doesn’t mean I dislike the others but this one’s quite different from the rest. That’s because this one’s about a very dope OG whose been doing this shit for years. He’s a perfect representation of my favorite element in hip hop, which is the DJ. The DJ’s have always been my favorite in hip hop. They provide the sounds that can get the place rocking. Depending on the DJ themselves. Knowing the crowd is just as important because there’s a sense of connection between the DJ and the crowd. Just like the MC, they move the crowd, they’re the mic controller, the masters of ceremony, DJ’s are what gave birth to the MC’s, breakers, and dancers altogether. All thanks to the pioneers in hip hop, DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Caz (the first MC & DJ), Grand Wizzard Theodore, and Grandmaster Flowers. If it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t have all these different techniques in which DJ’s use to being dope on the 1’s and 2’s. It’s more than just playing music too. DJ’s are also producers too. Ali Shaheed Muhammad, DJ Premier, RZA, DJ Scratch, DJ Khaled, and so much more have given us quality production as well as great shows on the 1’s & 2’s. Being an artist in the entertainment field, you meet so many other dope talented individuals and even through other people and then y’all get to know each other more and realize there’s this magical creative connection that works and then there’s permanent bond that doesn’t go away. In this case, this guy has been introduced to me through someone else. It just so happens that he’s part of this dope group and he produced my first album. His name is DJ Swanny River. Born as John Figueroa on April 5th, a fellow Aries, a Brooklyn native who grew up in the Brownsville section. Swanny says, “Growing up in Brooklyn was hard. I grew up in a poor, but happy family. My dad worked and my mom stayed home and took care of us. As the youngest in my family, my mother made my clothes.” New York back in the days was a very different time. The economy, the environment, the music, the neighborhood, everything. You’re definitely a product of your environment whether you know it or not. What you adapt to becomes a big part of you. Speaking of your environment, Swanny goes on about his early days. “Hip hop & House Music inspired me. I went to my aunt’s house for a visit in The Bronx and as we approached the building, that’s when I saw Grandmaster Flash in front of my building DJ’ing; he was scratching. As a kid, that sounded amazing to me, so at that time, I decided that’s what I wanted to do! My childhood friend, Bobby Simmons, taught me how to cut up “Good Times” by Chic. After that, DJ Grave Yard was born and as time went on, I got better at it. I changed my name to Scratch Master Swann and then eventually, DJ Swanny River.” That’s an incredible story! Very raw and organic how you actually seen a hip hop pioneer in those early days who influenced you to become a DJ as well. This was a time where there was no social media and internet access. Everything was outside in front of the building while regular people just did what they normally do everyday. Nothing planned for success just everyday living with a soundtrack to match. A really dope soundtrack always reflects the times we’re in. Swanny then tells me about what he’s done. His music and catalog. “I have several. My first real mixtape is called ‘The Hood Report’ featuring the great Blind Fury. Then came my LGBTQ mixtapes. ‘It Is What It Is When The Beat Drops’, Volumes 1 & 2, featuring my favorite, and still up to this day, LGBTQ rappers and a few singers. I dropped a bunch of singles after that with various artists but today, the projects that I’m extremely proud of are with my team, The Alliyance. They are the crème de la crème of this thing we call OUT RAP. We have a brand new project in the works. Our first project is called ‘Introducing The Alliyance.’ You can find that on all your streaming sites. Plus there are some tracks on those sites that are not on the album but guaranteed bangers. We also have a mixtape called ‘The Prequel.’ That you can find on SoundCloud, just search The Alliyance. Wow! Serious resumé right there! All work, no play. Swanny continues, “To be honest, in my music life, I have no regrets. So far, things happened just the way I planned. Some good, some bad, but it’s okay. In life, you have to take the good with the bad. That’s how you learn to grow and accept things and just keep it moving.” Well said! A great message for the people to definitely hear and take in. In conclusion, Swanny also says, “Years from now?? LOL! I see myself living my best life like I am now. No worries, enjoying what I do and helping the future generation of singers and rappers. That’s another thing, I love giving the young one’s advice and helping them with their passion for music. Only if they are serious.” There you have it! DJ Swanny River himself ladies and gentlemen. You can follow him Instagram @srmg_rwsradio.

Written by Jalen Hemphill

Director Vera Edwards

Vera Edwards is an award-winning American independent film director/producer/and author. Born and raised in the South Bronx, Edwards took her life experience and applied it to film. She and her son Ricardo Cordero began their Journey as visual storytellers by gathering independent artist from the streets and giving them a platform to express their talent by allowing them to further their careers as actors.

Edwards and her son formed Street Line Video an underground media video production team for unsung talent. Edwards and her son Ricardo Cordero have recorded major celebrities on and off stage such as Babyface, Charlie Wilson, Nikki Minaj, New Edition, The Ojays, Millie Jackson, Kurtis Blow Rick Ross just to name a few. She states after filming so many celebrities and helping them retain themselves in the music industry it was time that her son an herself needed to embark on creating history for themselves. She then wrote her first novel Band of Gold, which was one of the urban communities best selling books, you can get it free on Amazon. Edwards stated it was the book that she wanted to turn into a movie drama. Readers requested more of her work that's when She learned that our stories need to be told. So she then decided to shoot her own movies to generate her audience and followers, because of the high demand of her first novel Band of Gold Edwards wrote scripts for her son to shoot and edit and distribute across the world.

Edwards has had several Independent films that played in the theater such as Chick-en, Waiting 4 Mr. Wright starring Michael Clee from The Fearless 4, a their first novella titled Perate starring Tito from the 1980s group The fearless four. All three of these movies won Beta awards and had sold out shows. Edwards also has a soap opera title "Rodent" the Urban Soap opera which was released as a web series which was a drama and a battle rap movie titled PPRESSED starring Karine Sho-time Thornton and Mikey D (Michael Deering) of the Legendary 90s hip hop rap group Main Source. These movies met all kinds of genre in all types of countries. Which made the two web series a download hit.

Edwards latest work a pandemic movie titled a teenage story starring La Sunshine from the 1980s hip hop rap group The treacherous three, Grandwizard Theodore creator of DJ scratch and Stevie D from the 1980s r&b group The Force Mds was aired during the lock-down of the COVID 19 pandemic. The pandemic had the whole world staying in the house for a year and a half 2020 and a portion of 2021. The movie a teenage story was released on youtube for free and generated over 800,000 views. Not bad for and independent full featured movie. Since the pandemic has been lifted somewhat Edwards has started working on a new up-and-coming movie tv drama for the 2023 fall tv line up (now in production). She guarantees her audience will love this one. All movies can be viewed and seen all over the world. Edwards and her son Ricardo Cordero said they will continue to work as a directors and pride themselves by continuing to promote artist who couldn't receive a fair chance in the entertainment world. You can watch all of their movie on youtube @ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-wMxedqsYlGlg2HezxvWmA

The Rise of Dub Pudgy

I’m back at it again. It’s been a while. The pen been a little dry, well, not exactly, just been putting it to use on other projects but I’m back and it’s time for some new shit to be introduced. In my Craig Mack voice, “I’m kickin’ new flava in ya ear!” LOL! Anyways, there’s this particular artist. I met through family, so he is kind of like family to me too. Harlem’s finest and doing the damn thing as of lately dropping new dope music and music videos as well. I love to see people working, grinding, and shining. He goes by the name Dub Pudgy. Born as Michael Jordan, Jr. on October 9th, 1991, Pudgy’s another underground rap artist whose an up and coming talent whose been one busy individual. I’m very picky about talent and music but it’s the drive, dedication, and consistency that catches my eye. Let’s take it back to the very beginning of things, shall we?? Coming from Harlem, Pudgy’s family bond, in the beginning, was a really close one, and then things became different for him. He says, “At first, I had a family that was really close together, after more than a few deaths along with misunderstandings, that went away and it made things harder in the sense of being alone.” Unfortunately, family dynamics do change. Whether we want them to or not. A family, a foundation always shapes what type of adult the child will eventually become. It’s those unfortunate times that helps spark a young creative mind too. With the bad also comes with the good. Pudgy continues on about his days as a child and his inspirations and influences. “My elders, as in famous people, Tupac, Lil’ Wayne, and Will Smith, but mainly my Nana, grandmother and deep conversation with my brothers.” Having the love, support, and bond with our loved ones are very important just as much as our influences from entertainment. These things always reveal who we become as artists. Inspiration can come from anywhere outside of our main influences though. Energy never lies and what you associate with you will pick up. Even just minding your business walking down the street. Pudgy tells more about his where his inspirations come from. He says, “There’s something about being around people with good energy and when I just wrote something or performed, the reaction was so addictive and motivating that I became consumed in becoming great and making this a career.” No greater feeling than getting positive love, energy, and reciprocation back from those who are watching and listening. It’s what keeps an artist consistent and true to what they do. Speaking of doing, Pudgy is definitely doing the damn thing indeed. Music, music videos, collaborations, I love to see it all. My YouTube subscription box has Dub Pudgy music videos, he sends me texts of his links, it’s why I had to come back and give him his props for what he is doing. I asked Pudgy to speak more about his work and what he has going on currently. “My new single “Be Better” is out now on all platforms, the album “Harlem Legends”, and the video to “Be Better” will be out soon and we got more than music coming soon too.” Truly exciting. I love it all. Just wanted to make sure the people get into this as well. The sounds are very new school class of Harlem rap for the current generation. It’s all about the good times, good vibes, and positive energy. Youthful, hood, yet hopeful, optimistic, and fun Black-ness. When you reach a certain level and point in the field that you chose, reflecting on your progress and growth always humbles you. You also think about your life choices in the past because they definitely gave you the lessons you needed in order to get to where are you are currently. Any regrets at all?? Pudgy responds, “Every choice I’ve made got me to be the man that’s here today so no.” There you have it! No regrets. Full on confidence. He continues, “I see growth. You’re never too old to learn to be better.” Indeed. Never too old. Life goes on. To hear more from Dub Pudgy, you can find him on Facebook as MrNocap Withthehood and on Instagram @itz_justdub.

Written by Jalen Hemphill

Sharon Jones

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

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 Bofill

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