August 2007 Archives
Big Shoes to Fill
Is Emily King the new Alicia Keys? I flesh it out on the occasion of her debut release, East Side Story.
Sitting In
Roy Hargrove at Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park (8.25.07)
"There Will Never Be Another You": Max Roach Memorialized by Friends and Followers
Friday, mourners convened at Harlem's Riverside Church (steeple pictured at left) to send off premier jazz drummer and innovator Max Roach, who took his rest the morning of August 16th after a battle with Alzheimer's. It was a who's who of Black achievement, struggle and creativity past. Icons hunched and wrinkled, who all knew each other very, very well, memorialized Roach, the activist and the artist, often in that order, and anyone who knows his singularity musically will understand what a tribute that emphasis was, what a testimony that emphasis gave to his character.
Thank U Charlie Gibson
...or Elizabeth Vargas, rather, subbing for a vacationing Gibson on ABC World News and all the producers over there too, for living up to decades of media misrepresentation of Black folk on tonight's broadcast. You see apparently the brutal murder of three Black college students in Newark is the result of slack border patrols and ballooning so-called "illegal" immigrant populations. Taking cue from Republican presidential nominee Tom Tancredo's comments on news that one of the suspects was both undocumented and under indictment for 2 separate charges, ABC's small-minded producers pounced on the opportunity to scapegoat undocumented immigrants with the help of some representative "inner city" denizens, who uncoincidentally adhere to the familiar punchline of many a Comicview performer's go to joke. That is the housecoated, rollered haired, ashy, speech-impedified, drug addicted and/or chemically imbalanced that often seem to stand in for Black people in all our diversity.
Just a Lazy Afternoon
Jay Smooth just pointed his readers' attention to an important forthcoming literary event on his blog: the release of the late Ralph Ellison's long delayed second novel.
The Truth: Dwele & Emily King
Tags: Dwele, Emily King, Harlem, Music, Soul
Dwele at Marcus Garvey Park (8.16.07)
Let me get this out of the way: I am in love with Andwele Gardner. This is a recent occurence. He looked me in the eye last night as I was trying to snap some pics for this here blog, lingered, smiled--as he did to many other young women at Marcus Garvey Park last night--and made me forget what I had came there to do. And I'm not one of those chicks who swoons; I'm NYC and jaded but damn if Dwele don't have a style and a swagger. I was open so open that Tweet's ole lyric, "I can't be your baby mama 'though I'd like to" rang seriously true.
Blanched
NPR-affiliate WBGO recently conducted a great interview with trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard, maybe best known for his scores for various Spike Lee films including the definitive Hurricane Katrina documentary When the Levees Broke.
Bilal at the Highline Ballroom
Tags: Bilal, Music, Peter Hadar, Soul
Bilal at the Highline Ballroom (8.3.07)
Opener and self-styled it boy Peter Hadar warmed a New York City crowd well for Bilal's little ballyhooed but anxiously anticipated recent return to center stage. The Philadelphia-bred singer, whose incredible debut 1st Born Second (2001) proved too weighty to engender wide audience support, hit the Highline Ballroom the first Friday in August to run down selections from his long shelved sophomore album, Love For Sale, in fantastic fashion. Accompanied by an astute 7-man band, helmed by musical director Robert Glasper, and two female background singers, an unassuming Bilal drifted onto the stage, red wine in hand, band in full groove, and started sanging. No preface as to the fate of Love For Sale or record label status (he identifies himself as unsigned on his MySpace page), just music: bombastic, strange and quite beautiful.
Bust
Jetted to Brooklyn Thursday on my lunch break to catch singer-songwriter Eric Roberson at Brooklyn Academy of Music's Rhythm & Blues Festival. Sadly, despite receiving top billing on the schedule, Roberson, who dropped a new album, Left, in February, opened for Def Jam's newest diva, Chrisette Michele, and having timed my arrival to only catch the second set, I missed him. God bless her, but I couldn't get into Chrisette Michele's stuff, albeit I only stayed for 5, maybe 10, minutes and I've yet to listen to I Am. As lovely as she sounded on the Nas and Jay-Z joints, I couldn't get excited about her project but it would be wrong of me to continue to harp about the health of R&B and remain ignorant of her music so I'll check out I Am this weekend. And here's hoping Eric Roberson does another NYC show soon! (Check this YouTube clip of his record release party in February.)
She Who Believes in Freedom
Mavis Staples at Rockefeller Park (8.1.07)
The Best of Booker
Chuckii Booker on the cover of his self-titled 1989 debut.
