February 2008 Archives
A Mind is A Terrible Thing to Waste: The Ossie Davis Endowment
Tags: Education, Philanthropy
Ossie Davis moved on up a little higher in 2005 and his widow, the immense talent Ruby Dee, was rightly overlooked in a throwaway role from an underwhelming movie this past Oscar ceremony, but for those of you who took inspiration from the two activist artists and life partners, take a moment to demonstrate your respect for them by donating to the Ossie Davis Endowment. The endowment will fund a program of the vital and ever laudable UNCF. Per the endowment web site:
Ossie Davis Scholars are African American students who demonstrate a commitment to applying their careers as vehicles of activism to assure equal justice and opportunity, as Ossie did. The endowment will be administered by the United Negro College Fund, a 501(c) 3 charitable organization. Campaign donations to raise the endowment are being accepted by the National Heritage Foundation, also a 501 (c) 3 charitable organization.
Last check, the endowment was nearing half a million, a good chunk of change but nowhere near the 5 million dollar goal. If you believe in educational freedom, you'll make a donation.
Ebony & Ivory: A Post-Oscar Moment
Tags: Oscars, Stevie Wonder, Tilda Swinton
I didn't watch the Oscars but this is my favorite picture from the festivities in that it includes the pasty poly and unparalleled actress Tilda Swinton, whose performance in Michael Clayton restored my belief in the art of the studio picture and my imaginary confidante, the legend Stevland.
Kumble Rumble
Thursday night, Long Island University's Kumble Theater played host to a super line-up of indie soul artists. The Black History Month concert featured Akoya Afrobeat Ensemble, HEAVy, Lizz Fields, Deemi and Eric Roberson. My affinity for Eric Roberson is well established and I've been charmed by HEAVy in the handful of times I've caught their irrepressable crunk-up-on-it shows but my main motivation for checking out the show was Lizz Fields. Her name has been buzzing around for the past few years and she's the favorite artist of a discerning friend. Not one to stay in the dark for long, I had to catch her set and she more than impressive. An honest performer, she sang a few pointed songs in a pared down bongo and guitar context. Looking forward to hearing her forthcoming sophomore album Pleasureville. And on the subject of delightful surprises, Akoya Afrobeat Ensemble was mighty on point as well. Those in NYC should check the multiracial Fela Kuti inspired ensemble at their record release party Thursday, February 28th at SOB's.''
For photos of the events, check photog Richard Louissaint's Flickr photo stream
Loathsome Tear Drop
Tags: Amy Winehouse, Blue-Eyed Soul
Someone needs to knock the crack pipe from Amy Winehouse's chapped lips before she appropriates and conflates more things 'hood and ethnic. Already a poor mash up of a chola and Annette Funicello, the other day Winehouse had the gall to paint a teardrop on her long spotty face! Of course, anybody with rudimentary criminal knowledge is aware of what the teardrop means and referencing her Blake's OD is a grave misappropriation. If you're gonna back/brown/'hood it up, do it right. Like all manner of minstrels, Amy's makes a mockery of colored people as she apes them. Some of us don't know any better than to be flattered or enamored but I do. The blackness enveloping her is criminal and tragic and not at all representative of the real thing.
To this question of authenticity, I'd like to reiterate the unimpressiveness of the Mark Ronson-championed school of white soul singers. Countless deal-less Negroes do it better, but it seems like everyone these days, fans of all colors, remain too enamored by whiteness (a vital vestige of white supremacists institutions and imperative of its present day incarnations) to care. Music should be equal opportunity but when all the awe and A&R are reserved for blah blue-eyed soul-singers, the playing field becomes remarkably uneven. If the chunky white chick and the unimpressive white dude below can have industry support than why can't LaToiya Williams!?
Cover Me: A Partial Wish List
I can't sing, although I'd like to. Given that limitation, I could see myself finding fulfillmment as a sometime A&R woman. The songs I would at best butcher, I could channel to the so blessed. And with all the talented musicians stifled by shoddy material-- songwriting is in a slump these days--I could do the world a great service by suggesting musicians abandon dime a dozen disposable drivel and instead look for material in the expanded American songbook. So as replacement repertoire, here are a few unlikely songs, old and new, today's soul and R&B vocalists should consider covering:
"U Don't Have to Call" - Usher
This Usher hit song, an enduringly dancefloor friendly Neptunes production, I envision in the hands of a singer-songwriter. I hear it acoustic and drawn out. Written by Pharrell Williams the lyrics are short and pointed and lend themselves to interpretation. It's a brilliantly simple song and Usher did a masterful job the first time around but I'd like to see it slowed down. I could see this working across genres too--Ryan Adams maybe?--but ideally I'd like to see an up and coming soul singer take this another place.
"Only A Fool Would Say That" - Steely Dan
Now Obama might consider invoking this song as a sonic retort to Clintonian criticisms of his bright new vision for America, except the dense might miss the message given the prominent caustic chorus. Steely Dan's writing prowess is well established, so I won't make their case, but rather reiterate how appropriate this song is for today. Unlike "U Don't Have Call" I can't hear a radically different articulation of this song yet, probably because its overpoweringly iconic, but I think someone could do something interesting with it.
"Meantime" -- The Futureheads
The spare lyrics of this Futureheads song could lose their appeal outside of the frantic drum-driven soundscape but I think a smart vocalist could make it work. I'm continually underwhelmed by the narrow subject matter of contemporary soul and R&B, mainstream or indie, and I have to look elsewhere for nourishment. These guys aren't especially deep but they manufacture a song that coarsely considers conventions and fakeness and R&B vocalists could do the same. I'd keep the baseline and--guess what?-- slow it down. Otherwise, I think, great license could be taken with it to great effect.
"Love from a Distance" - Beres Hammond
Counter custom, a stateside soul singer could snatch up this Jamaican classic and make it new. It's sweet as is and I just love it but I'd like to hear it without the sacharrine one drop and decorative horns. It needs more bitterness to be now.
There are enumerable songs worth retreading. I've only scratched the surface. Offer your suggestions in the comments.
Jah Mo Be There: Michael McDonald Live in NYC
Tags: Blue-Eyed Soul, Michael McDonald, Music
I've taken to RSVP'ing all social calls, "Jah Mo Be There." It fits. Jah is one of my many nicknames and it rolls off the tongue and the keyboard. In fact, just this Saturday a with-child friend expressed delight at my tapping out the phrase on her baby shower Evite. So if my appropriation of the Michael McDonald and James Ingram tune can bring joy, what of the real thing? Well Gothamites need not wait any longer than the 4th of March when the vintage blue-eyed soul singer takes over the Blue Note for two nights. Tickets are $55 which isn't bad at all given how intimate the space is and how good the sight lines are. I'm considering it. If he's just debuting material from his forthcoming album Soul Speak, I'll pass but if he's got any plans to dig through his Doobie catalog and his eighties solo output, well, y'all already know.
The Labelle/McDonald classic below used to stay on rotation on VH1, which I loathed on account of all the old folks' music they played*, but I couldn't resist Ms. Patti in the fur and the ironed wig on the waterfront promenade. Jammin' on the one:
*That I now watch more VH1 than any other music network (which is still not much) is disheartening evidence of my stodgy adult sensibilities.
GRAMMY Gushes and Gripes
Some questions raised and some rhetoricals huffed by me while viewing the 50th Anniversary GRAMMY award broadcast from my toasty front room:
+What was more offensive: Lifetime Achievement Award presenter Tom Hanks' jowls or Alicia Keys' tacky virtual duet, feigned accompaniment, husky adlibs and all?+Stomp and Carrie Underwood, the Time and Rihanna: Why?
+Who selected
the community theater withCirque de Soleilambitionsfor the Beatles tribute?+When will Hollywood stop with the contrived gospel choir melodrama?
+Who doesn't love Jason Bateman?
+Before tonight, how did Fergie secure 3 GRAMMYS?
+After that pitch poor performance with John Legend, how can any self respecting music fan not immediately renounce the egregiously talentless Fergie?
+Was it just me or was Kanye West's performance long and lacking, albeit tear-jerking?
+What was with Beyoncé's Black history recitation and why did she lip sync it?
+Did Bey step on TT's foot, in other words, did she pull an Usher circa the Michael Jackson 30th Anniversary spectacle and try to outdance a legend?
+Ain't 68 year-old TT still got it?
+So I think we can safely assume Beyoncé's rider stipulated that Solange had to be a presenter, no?
+Can you get any more ineloquent than Kanye?
+Who could have predicted the Queen would have rocked such a tasteful ensemble or that Bebe's blazer would more than make up for the Queen's elegance in its garishness?
+Who was more geeked than me by the Clark Sisters rendition of one of the greatest gospel songs ever, "You Brought the Sunshine?" (I listened to that joint 3x earlier in the day to make up for missing church for the 20th or so Sunday in a row.)
+How surprising good was the ReRe-helmed Gospel segment?
+Would it be petty to critique Feist's high water dress before indicting her underwhelming performance?
+Old lady Keely, Kid Rock's duet partner, can sing, but why was she presenting the rock award?
+How funny was it that Keely stayed in the picture as Grohl and 'em accepted their award?
+Did Stevland not murder Alicia on her own intro, resurrecting that bland ass song and injecting it with life?
+I can't be the only one distressed at Alicia's weave, right?
+Are their honestly discerning fans moved by Keys' music in other words, dare I say, the empress has no clothes?
+It's hard to hate on Ri Ri, no?
+With so much rapper ego on stage, anyone else fantasizing about a return the Fresh Prince-retired GRAMMY rap out? (Most artists from other genres express gratefulness, which I much prefer to entitlement.)
+Why Cuba, why?
+Should I read the vigor with which Winehouse background singers are shimming as a desperate plea for a better gig?
+Oh lawd, where's Cholly Atkins when you need him?
+Why did they take the camera off Amy when she was dancing at the end of "You Know I'm No Good?"
+Who doesn't root for Amy, shout out to "my Blake incarcerated" and all?
+Why does Will.i.am perpetually embarrass?
+Who could have predicted Herbie taking Album of the Year (I love Herbie but I didn't much care for the album)?
And Herbie, ¡Sí, Se Puede! right back atcha.
PS-The full rundown of GRAMMY victors here.
Now or Never?: The Black Body Politic
So this morn, awoken by menstrual cramps, I blog hopped in an effort to take my mind off the shooting pain. Over at Perez Hilton's blog, I came across an irksome post citing Cher's comments to "Extra" about the Democratic horse race.
I like Hillary. I think she'd make the best president. I think [Barack]'s a good man. I think he's altruistic. I think he's smart. I think at some point he can be a great leader. I just don't think it's now.
Now, faded superstar Cher is not the first person to offer praise for Barack Obama, assert he is not yet ready for the Oval Office and then pledge enigmatic support for Clinton. Whenever I encounter Obama supporters, they clearly and enthusiastically explain his appeal but Clintonians, not so much. They are more likely to paternally dismiss Obama, for now, for lacking Clinton's "experience"-I'm with Chris Rock on the ridiculousness of a wife claiming experience at her husband's job even though I know that women's labor often goes unacknowledged and uncredited-if they offer any explanation at all. It's uncanny and befuddling. I am certainly riding for Obama but I can respect another person's sincere, if misled, decision to support someone else but I am unsettled that so many Clintonians' support is braced by the presumption that Obama can come later. I don't think I'm being hyperbolic here by invoking a passage from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter From a Birmingham Jail",
For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."
And to place Obama's candidacy in starker relief, pun intended, here is a quote from Jimmy Breslin from this week's issue of New York,
...I'm voting for Obama. Put the two of them up there and you listen to her. Then listen to him. If you're sick, you'll vote for her.
Homies Over Hoes
Tags: Misogyny, The Boondocks
I had never previously seen an episode of "The Boondocks" but last night's season finale was a witty introduction. Featuring the voice of Mos Def as an effete, misogynistic and defensively homophobic closeted rapper called Gangstalicious, it satirized the gender and sexuality prejudices that plague some of hip hop music. The fictitious Gangstalicious hit song, "Homies over Hoes," especially resonated as I had just seen the video for the newish Scarface song, "Girl You Know," or the straw of gratuitous and unprovoked dismissals and degradations of Black women that broke this mule's back. Although isms and schisms predate Scarface and rickety hook man Trey Songz, they and their ilk haven't passed on any opportunities to spread the message. To listen and to watch the video for "Girl You Know" is to be confounded by the manifold ways your MTV rotational rapper has found to masquerade the demeaning as creativity or "poetry" per Blood Diamond Russ'.
In my formative years, New Edition sang a similar song with an entirely different tone. Remember, "You're Not My Kind of Girl?" Ralph Tresvant was my imaginary boyfriend so I do. One memorable and apropos adlib went a little something like this, "I'm not trying to put you down." How much more humane. Yes, break ups are part of life and they aren't always sugary and don't need to be sung as such but when so many songs in these past few years stiff arm and backhand Black women it speaks to deeper seeded issues. Moreover, why are Black women's names coming out of antipathic rapper's mouths. If you don't give a fuck about us, write about someone, something else.
"Homies Over Hoes" is just "G's Up, Hoes Down" (I see you and your chained harem, Snoop) remixed but it doesn't make the pill any easier to swallow. I leave you with the words of a cocky, often ill informed but incisive rapper Ras Kass:
If bitches ain't shit but hoes and tricks, then niggas ain't shit but hoes with dicks.
A Prince Among Slaves
Tags: Black History Month, Film
Black History Month has commenced and PBS is now airing African American documentaries that, irregardless of quality, it wouldn't consider airing any other month. I just caught an airing of the Mos Def narrated documentary "Prince Among Slaves." I've got some concerns with the title. First, there was never any such thing as a slave; there were the enslaved. Big distinction, that wasn't what some of my ancestors were, it was what they were forced to do. Second, titling the film "Prince Among Slaves" suggests an investment in a social order that position a prince above the institution of slavery. What of the peasant? Would you title a film "Peasant Among Slaves?" It's worth reminding that freedom is a birthright for the meek and mighty.
As to the film's narrative, I can't comment on the nitty gritty before commenting on the production. It was visibly low budget, which I can live with, if it doesn't affect the documentary's historical accuracy and while I have some questions I can't make a judgment in that area just yet. Call me petty, but what I can judge is the poor quality of Prince Abdul-Rahman's hairpiece. Not since "Unbreakable" have I seen a hairpiece so poor. The yaki 'pon the actor playing Prince Abdul-Rahman's head had me chuckling throughout the solemn story and I can only imagine how distracting it could be to elementary and secondary students who will no doubt be forced to watch this in the cursory nod to black history some of our public and private schools occasionally offer.
Content wise, I was especially engaged by the late Bebe Moore Campbell's commentary as to how difficult it was to love and maintain family under those circumstances yet many of our ancestors did just that, exercising will in bondage. Dollar out of 50 cents, haute cuisine out of weeds and offal: we are an industrious people.
Spotlight: Jazz Saxophonist Tia Fuller
Tags: Jazz, Tia Fuller
Multi-instrumentalist Tia Fuller has got a funny store to tell about Joe Budden. He of "Pump it Up" and perpetually pushed back release dates apparently also has experienced difficulties honoring verbal contracts with his session musicians. Fuller, a Colorado native, who has lived and worked in New York city area for most of the aughties, got one of her first gigs in the city supplying saxophone stabs for Budden's one and only release and the ensuing headache (regarding, you guessed it, payment!) taught the jazz musician a lot about a business that she's since managed to master if her sophomore release, A Healing Space, and membership in Beyoncé's all female band are any evidence. I telephoned Ms. Fuller Friday night with twin sets with her own all female quartet at the Jazz Standard and an engagement backing Beyoncé at the Grammys looming in the near and not so distant future. In our hour-long conversation Ms. Fuller touched on Hurricane Katrina, which inspired two encouraging compositions on A Healing Space, the aforementioned Budden incident, spirituality and gender in jazz music. The full interview is coming soon but in the meanwhile check out some of Tia Fuller's music on last.fm.
The Tia Fuller Quartet w/ special guests plays sets at 7:30 and 9:30 pm tonight at the Jazz Standard in New York City. For reservations and directions call: 212-576-2232.
The Way I Live
Tags: Health, Vegan, Vegetarian
For the record, I've been master cleansing since way before Beyoncé, Ashanti or Trina. Ask about me. I almost passed out on "the strip", that cobble stoned walkway linking the illustrious institutions of the Atlanta University Center. I toted a gallon mixture of cayenne, fresh lemon juice and maple syrup to class and even observed the dreaded salt water flushes. I never made 10 days but I put in work and detoxed significantly. I'm a longstanding vegetarian, sometimes vegan, and health nut by blood. My parents, both former athletes, faithfully patronized our local co-op. Soy milk has always been in my house although I didn't personally take a liking to it until the advent of Silk and I never savored the tooth-rooting sweetness of sugar cereal. So it was exciting to read about my health conscious kinfolk in the Washington Post a few days ago in a story spotlighting unlikely vegan football player Tony Gonzalez. One day, I plan to open a vegan eatery and maybe by then more folks like Gonzalez will populate my customer base. Click here to read the article.
