Great Spirits

first musical treat is up!

   The first in our series of musical treats is up; just click on the "musical treats" button to access a downloadable MP3 file of a 40-minute music mix. Not every "musical treat" will be a complete mix; sometimes it will just be a single track that I think is worth checking out. This week's treat though is the first half of a 70-minute world music mix. This first half mixes new material by relatively well-known artists (Susana Baca, Oumou Sangare) with fairly obscure artists (Faraualla, Grupo Socavon). The running order is 1. Susana Baca(Peru) 2. Gangbe Brass Band (from Benin) 3. Oumou Sangare (Mali)  4. Issa Bagayogo (Mali)  5. Faraualla (Italy)  6. Amadou & Mariam (Mali)  7. Grupo Socavon  8. Staff Benda Bilili  9. Grupo Fantasma. It will only be up for about a week. The next post will be the second half of the mix. Enjoy!

Great Spirits at Atlanta Soul Summit

    Randall Grass will be doing a presentation of Great Spirits at The International
Soul Music Summit on Saturday September 26th. The Summit is at the Renaissance Hotel
Downtown in Atlanta at 590 W. Peachtree St.. The International Soul Music Summit, which
is into its fourth year, is a prime gathering of soul and progressive music lovers.

a love letter to The Shirelles

I have had an ongoing passion for the so-called "girl groups" of the early Sixties ever since they came on the scene. Hard to pin-point exactly why. I think part of it was an appreciation of the special tonalities of female voices, the sex appeal of of a female singing to me (as I imagine it) and the often husky even tough voices contrasted with the passionate or sometimes just sentimental lyrical content. The term "girl groups" is a somewhat strange in the sense that we don't speak of "guy groups" or "boy groups". It is mostly a term of exceptionalism, given that most rock 'n' roll vocal groups were male. It was hard for girls to be part of the street corner vocal scene. The Bobbettes broke through with their one-off hit "Mr. Lee" in 1957, but it was the mighty Chantels, led by the incomparable vocals of Arlene Smith, who proved that a girl group could be more than a novelty, scoring a string of hits from 1957 - 1962, hitting the pop charts, not just the R & B charts, in the process. Suddenly girls realized that they could be on the radio just like the guys and The Chantels inspired a number of young ladies to form groups, including the greatest girl-group hitmakers of the pre-Supremes classic girl group era--The Shirelles.  They hit the pop charts 25 times between 1958 and 1967--15 times in their peak period of 1960-1963--including such indelible classics as "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", "Tonights The Night", "Baby It's You", "Soldier Boy", "Mama Said, "Dedicated To The One I Love," and in turn inspired the girl-group explosion of The Ronettes, The Chiffons, The Crystals, The Orlons etc.

But those stats don't really convey the magic. A lot of the magic came from lead singer Shirley Owens (later Alston). She had a husky, warm, sometimes quavery voice that conveyed strength and vulnerability at the same time. Technically, Doris Kenner (later Coley), the group's other lead singer, had a stronger, more conventionally impressive voice (she sang lead on their first mega-hit, "Dedicated To The One I Love").

But Shirley's singing and sound were completely unique. Another source of their magic was the high quality of songs they were given to record, written by the likes of Carole King, Bacharach/David and Luther Dixon. Their level was evidenced by the fact that Dionne Warwick was sometimes a substitute Shirelle. In an era when albums were often two hits and a bunch of throw-aways or versions of popular songs by other artists, The Shirelles albums had a lot of quality non-hits, songs like "It's Love That Really Counts", "The Things I Want To Hear", "Blue Holiday" etc., and their songs were covered by the likes of The Beatles("Boys"), Manfred Mann("Sha La La", The Mamas & Papas("Dedicated To The One I love", Smith("Baby It's You"), Roberta Flack("Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow") and more. They were equally good on ballads and uptempo material--check the tough "Big John", "Love Is A Swingin' Thing", and "Everybody Loves A Love". I was fortunate to see the Shirelles in the Seventies, the originals Shirley, Beverly and Mickey, with only Doris absent, sounded as good as they had a decade earlier--'course they were only in their thirties when I saw them.

This love letter was occasioned by my decision to put together an ultimate Shirelles mix-cd for myself. I start off with the monumental "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?", a stately, passionate capsule of a moment when a young woman has decided she is going to have sex with the guy she likes and wonders what it will mean for him--yet is going to go ahead with it anyway. Then there is the straight-up passion of "Dedicated To  The One I Love", their interpretation of the Five Royales hit, which The Shirelles turn into a wise bit of philosophy. "Mama Said" captures the dynamic between mother and daughter in a positive way via one of the most addictively catchy melodies ever written. "Baby It's You" is right up there with "Fever" as one of the sexiest songs ever written and Shirley puts it across with alternately come-hither breathiness and more assertive, demanding tones, delivered via slinky, insinuating phrasing. And so on...thirty-four tracks, only a few of them just fair, the rest ranging from excellent to sublime. The only hit I left of was "Soldier Boy" which I can't stand due to it's clip-clopping tempo, dull unison vocals, and sometimes silly lyrics ("oh, my little soldier boy"?). Obviously the public took another view as it was one of the signature songs, one of two #1 pop  hits of their career. But it's my mix cd and I'll leave it off if I want to!

The Shirelles have existed in one form or another until recently.  Shirley left for a solo career in 1975 but Doris, who had left to get married in 1968, returned when Shirley left. In the Eighties the group split into two factions which continued into the new millenium, though MIcki died in 1982, with Shirley performing as Shirley Alson of The  Shirelles. Now I hear Doris has passed. But I will remember them as four talented "around-the-way" girls, attractive but not devastating beauties, who were the first real superstar girl group and made some of the most moving and enduring music of the past fifty years.

cover songs

here's my rant about "cover songs"...

for quite a while there seems to be a growing phobia about so-called "cover songs" among music critics, musical artists, and even music fans....not only does it seem crazy to me but I think it is a contributing factor to the low quality of so much music being released today....in recent times I have heard or seen comments such as "don't want to order a lot of that album because it is all cover songs" (said by the buyer of major French retail chain about new album of R & B artist--even though the #1 selling album in France at the time was Seals album of cover songs!)...."an artist's second album is way too early to be doing an album of cover songs" (said by random fan in Amazon post)...."I don't want to do any cover songs" (said by artist who was first rate signer but mediocre songwriter)...."we don't want to play too many cover songs" (said by radio programmer who nevertheless ended up picking a cover song to play from the artists latest album).....

      What lies behind all these comments?  There is a feeling that an artist doing someone else's song is somehow being uncreative, less serious and less interesting. And that is ridiculous.

      But first, a little history. What is a "a cover song"?  As far as I know the term came into being sixty or more years ago.  If a song become a hit by a given artist, dozens--if not hundreds--of other artists from various genres would rush to "cover it" , that is do their own version of the song. The logic was simple--it was a hit song, a great song and people love to hear great songs. So the smart artist, wanting to be heard and please their audience, did their own version of what had been proven to be a great song, according to the audience. In the popular music realm, more often than not, songs tended to be written by professional songwriters--i.e. people who devoted themselves to the craft of songwriting and attained a certain level of skill. Yes, there were always performers who wrote some or even most of their own songs but they tended to be the exception. Then what happened?  In short order:  The Beatles, Stevie Wonder and singer-songwriters.  The astonishing popularity--and mystique as cultural leaders-- of the Beatles, a self-contained band that wrote their own songs (though even the Beatles did a fair number of cover songs in their first two years of recording) inspired large numbers of young people to form bands and write songs; quite a number of such bands became very popular in the rock explosion of the Sixties. Meanwhile, by the end of the Sixties Stevie Wonder was writing most if not all of his material and he wrote, recorded and largely played four masterpiece albums in a row. So for the R & B world, Stevie Wonder (and Marvin Gaye) became role models for artists. Finally, the success of singer-songwriters such as Carole King (who started as a Brill Building songwriter), Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Paul Simon etc sparked an explosion of sensitive  singer-songwriters expressing themselves in the 70's.

     What's wrong with this? Well, the problem is that a great singer might not be a great songwriter. A great producer might not be a great songwriter. A great songwriter might not be a great singer. Most people are lucky to write one or two great songs in their life, maybe a handful of good ones in a year or two. Not everyone is John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder or Carole King. But all of a sudden the ideal of a musical artist became one who wrote his or her own songs. That was considered the ultimate expressiveness, the ultimate originality. And that become the norm. But most really good singers or musicians were not great songwriters. So when they filled their albums with their own songs or their producers filled their albums with their own songs, the quality suffered. But they felt the needed to do it in order to be taken seriously.

      Clive Davis made the following comment about this trend: "did Frank Sinatra or Billie Holiday need to write songs in order to be taken seroiusly?"   Obviously not.  Think of all the great artists who made great recordings with cover songs:  Aretha Franklin "Respect" (written by Otis Redding")(her singature song), Nina Simone, "I Loves You Porgy"(her signature song) , John Coltrane "My Favorite Things" (arguably his breakthrough),  Otis Redding "Satisfaction", Jimmy Hendrix, "All Along The Watchtower", Chaka Khan "My Funny Valentine" and on and on.  These artists were great singers or players who to a great song and made an original expression with it. That's something any great singer or player can do. They don't need to have written the song.

      The weird thing is the "cover song" label is now often applied to ANY song not written by the performer, even if it was never recorded before or not well known.  Somehow it is considered better for an artist to record a cd's worth of medicore original songs, with maybe one standout, than a cd with a bunch of great songs mostly written by others. And that's a shame.  It's one reason people don't buy cd's like they used to. And artists don't develop their interpretative skills. Let's hope we can get over "cover song phobia" soon!

Musical Treats

Click the link to listen to the mix...

Download this week's mix.

Laura Izibor's Irish soul

It's funny but people will accept certain music if it comes to them through a certain channel or packaged a certain way...but not if comes to them through an unfamiliar channel or packaged in an unfamiliar way.  Or sometimes people won't even hear the music if it doesn't come through a channel that they use. Everything is divided up in America into little marketing channels and now, thanks to the internet, with almost infinite choice, people can make so they only tune in to what is familiar to them or what they already like. The ultimate example of that is Pandora which via computers will design the equivalent of a radio station tailored for each individual, based on that individual's apparent tastes. Some think that's wonderful and in a way it is but the downside is that most of us don't know that we might like something different until we're exposed to it and that often that happens by accident or when it is forced on us. Back in the day Top Forty radio played Motown, The Beatles, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Cash, Bobby Blue Bland, Dave Brubeck and whole mess of one-off hits drawn from rock 'n' roll, r & b, country, folk and jazz, as long as it  was a "hit". The Singing Nun could become a worldwide hit and so could Hi-Heel Sneakers by Tommy Tucker. And everyone would be exposed to them because there was no choice!

     These thoughts were in mind my when I saw Laura Izibor at World Cafe Live in Philly.  There's been a media buzz on her due in large part to her bi-racial identity (Irish mother, Nigerian father) and the fact that she's been pitched as a soul singer from Ireland. Her first single "From My Heart To You", a smash hit in the UK, has been an urban ac hit here in America.  It's a good song, rooted in R & B. I'd only heard a couple other things by her, which hadn't made as much of an impression. The crowd at World Cafe Live was an interesting mix, fairly evenly split between black and white with some other ethnicities in there, a seemingly earthy, muilti-cultural vibe. If she hadn't been promoted via urban ac radio, I think most of the African-American folk there would not have been present and if she hadn't been promoted to a Triple A radio channel I don't think you would have seen as many Caucasions. The album has only sold about 50,000 copies in few weeks of release, pretty good for a new artist though not great considering the radio hit.

     Her band--drums, bass, keyboards, one female backing vocalist and a trumpet--was tight, small probably because of limited touring budget; interesting that she chose to have a trumpet rather than guitar(though the bass player picked up an acoustic guitar at strategic moments). Laura came out,  tall, slender, perched in high-heeled boots and wearing a medium Afro, framing classic Irish features leavened by a beige complexion. Her music was not all like the single, only some of it r & b rooted. She sometimes sat herself behind a keyboard and played while she sang, other times stalking the stage in a relaxed, easy-going strut, not overly flashy or intense. Her music ranged over territory reminiscent of Joan Armatrading, Carole King, Laura Nyro, Amy Winehouse and any number of singer-songwriters, which is what she is even though often pitched in the media as a "soul singer."  She draws on  R & B of the Sixties and Seventies often enough but she is hardly limited by it. As a performer, she was engaging, cracking jokes in an Irish brogue. As a singer, she can put across a song though she does not have a spectacular voice. Some of her material is not exceptional and in those cases she could come across as a little bland. But when she has a strong song, as was the case about half the time, she was impressive. What was refreshing about Laura Izibor was that she was herself, no apologies and no pretense, and the diversity of her personality came out in diverse musical expression. She really doesn't fit a music-biz "slot".  The sell-out audience loved her; she is clearly connecting with people and that gives me hope, that even today a new artist can get over with simply high-quality, expressive, honest music-making without gimmicks or image-mongering.  That is indeed good news! 

Great Spirits Coming To Wash, DC!

A Celebration Of Great Spirits will come to Washington, DC on Wednesday, August 26, 2009 when Randall Grass comes to the bookstore/cafe Busboy's & Poets to present anecdotes about the artists featured in Great Spirits: Portraits Of Life-Changing World Music Artists as well as playing some of their music, answering questions about them and, of course, singing copies of Great Spirits. This will be followed by a concert of world music, featuring two artists.  The event will start at 7:00PM at Busboys And Poets, located at 2001 14th St. NW, Washington, DC.   Admission is free. For information call 202-387-7638 or ggo to www.busboysandpoets.com.

 

watch this space

watch this space for special musical treats to stream or download....

for instance from time to time we will post "mystery mixes"....great music mixes of anywhere from 50 -75 minutes, featuring both well-known and obscure (and sometimes unreleased!) gems from many genres....some will be world music focused some in other genres and many will just be multi-genre...

when posted these treats will only be up for a week and then taken down!

CORRECTED PHILADELPHIA BOOK SIGNING INFO!

     Please note the address correction for the Philadelphia Barnes & Noble Book Signing Event

      Randall Grass will present a "celebration of great spirits" at Barnes & Noble in Philadelphia
on Thursday August 6th from 6:00PM to 7:00PM. The event will feature personal anecdotes by
the author about the artists in Great Spirits: Portraits Of Life-Changing World Music Artists as
well as some music from the artists, plus a little reading and book-signing for all comers!
The Barnes & Noble location is at 1805 Walnut St. in Philadelphia; the event is on the
third floor.

anthoney wright is one to watch

       As with all the artists I profile in GREAT SPIRITS, it is a great moment when you hear some music that stops you in your tracks. I call it a "pull over to the side of the road" moment...recalling all those moments when driving that I heard something electrifying on the radio and just had to pull over to the side of the road to listen...hoping to catch the name of the artist or tune. These moments are less frequent these days but they still happen. My most recent such moment came when someone e-mailed me an MP3 of a song called "Reset To Zero" by a UK singer named Anthoney Wright. What grabbed me initially was his voice--it is a classic soul voice, that reached out, grabbed you, demanded attention. And the song builds into the kind of hook-y, memorable chorus that used to be a staple of pop/r & b songwriting, before songwriting became defined by "beats."  Anthoney's voice is not a dead ringer for anyone in particular but would have fit right in the Stax or Hi Records rosters. I'm not going to tell you that he's the second coming of Al Green; back in the day he would have been just one of a few dozen--if not a couple hundred--good soul singers who, given the right song, could put it across with conviction and style. The sad fact is that these days he's one of a relative handful; not a lot of singers coming on the r & b scene today have even this much voice, this much distinctiveness or ability to phrase a vocal. So by default he's great, on a par with Anthony Hamilton, Leela James or Ledisi, say.

     I managed to have an advance promo copy of his UK album sent to me and it only reinforces the impression that something special is going on. Not every song is great but you can tell that the songs, almost all written or co-written by Wright, are written by someone who knows how to write a song. About half of them are pretty damn good, an incredible batting average by today's standards. The production is not retro at all...it is minimalistic, vibey, and often cool, though for my money clunky and primitive in too many places...but you know folks like that nowadays, thanks to hip-hop. Even when someone is creating a whole track from scratch it often has a cut-and-paste feel as though created from many elements, including samples. For Anthoney Wright, that sound will help position him as current as opposed to retro. Think Amy Winehouse who on her breatkthrough album drew on uptown soul from the Sixties but with a current chopped-and-screwed sound. And I was sent a dance-re-mix of "Wud If I Could",  the lead cut of the album. I'm not a fan of house-y remixes in general but I gotta say, this remix version sounds like a hit, if you like that sort of thing.

      Inspired by the music, I went online, checked out his videos and a live-performance. The videos are cool, often quirky, staying away from current r & b video cliches for the most part. The live performance is Anthoney back by just an electric guitarist and percussionist...and he comes across strong in that stripped-down setting; a good sign!  On top of that he's relatively young, I'd guess mid-twenties to early thirties, with dreadlocked good looks, and engaging as a performer.  So watch out for Anthoney Wright, my tip for the day.