Here’s another guitarist who, like Pete Cosey (12/31/09), doesn’t run with the herd.
Ronnie, live, Botswana
(Yo, Don: Thanks for the tip!)
Who would’ve wanted to follow these guys onstage?
The Dixie Hummingbirds, live, 1966
“Christian’s Automobile”
*****
“I’ve Got So Much To Shout About”
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[The Dixie Hummingbirds were] the original spiritual pioneers of song. They set the standard for all to follow by spreading the message of God’s love through quartet singing.—Stevie Wonder
*****
[The Dixie Hummingbirds] are true American heroes. They are what singers and show people and entertainers wish they could be. They’re not just legends. They are heavenly stars.—Solomon Burke
*****
Few singers have held a job longer, or been more revered by audiences and their fellow singers [than the Dixie Hummingbirds’ Ira Tucker, above left].
‘The virtuoso of quartet,’ gospel historian Anthony Heilbut called Tucker.
Blues singers like Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland said they learned at his feet. The Temptations were Tucker disciples, as were hundreds of rhythm and blues vocal groups of the 1950s and 1960s.
James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Al Green and Brook Benton were among the artists who took lessons in lyrical phrasing and stage showmanship from Tucker.
Most famously to pop music fans, Paul Simon used the Hummingbirds on his recording of “Love Me Like A Rock” in 1973. They later recorded it themselves, with Tucker on lead of course, and it won them a Grammy.—David Hinckley
What’s old is new again.
Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek, “Memories Live” (2000; sampling Ann Peebles, “I Can’t Stand the Rain,” 1973 [yesterday’s post])
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mail
Very cool! [DeLois Barrett Campbell and the Barrett Sisters, 1/3/10]
*****
Great clip! Enjoyed seeing Jack Paar, too, and loved the way the camera eased back to show the drummer at work with the brushes. [Blossom Dearie, 1/7/10]
Presence, immediacy, feeling: the way his records sound, you’d swear they were nailed in just one take.
What higher compliment could you pay a record producer?
Willie Mitchell (March 23, 1928 – January 5, 2010)
*****
O.V. Wright, “A Nickel and A Nail” (1971)
*****
Ann Peebles, “I Can’t Stand the Rain” (1973)
*****
Syl Johnson, “Take Me To The River” (1975)
*****
Al Green, “Love and Happiness” (1977)
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Thank you so much, Richard. . . . Stay well and Happy New Year. Love, Sheila
(Sheila Jordan, 1/6/10, 9/28/09 [in response to an email letting her know she was being featured here])
A vocal coach can help with many things—intonation, breathing, range—but not the most important thing: personality.
Blossom Dearie, “Surrey with the Fringe on Top,” live (TV broadcast), early 1960s
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[Blossom Dearie’s voice] would scarcely reach the second storey of a doll’s house.—Whitney Balliett
*****
[Blossom Dearie’s] the only white woman who ever had soul.—Miles Davis
Why take a straight path when you can take a crooked one?
Sheila Jordan (with Steve Kuhn, piano; David Finck, bass; Billy Drummond, drums; Mark Feldman and Barry Finclair, violin; Vincent Lionti, viola; Harold Birston, cello), “Autumn in New York,” live, 2008, New York (on her 80th birthday)
captivating, adj. capturing interest as if by a spell. E.g., Betty Carter.
Betty Carter (with Cyrus Chestnut, piano), “Once Upon A Summertime,” live, Japan, 1993
(Watch how she moves when giving way to Cyrus Chestnut’s piano solo [3:40-54]: the elegance of a dancer, the dignity of a queen.)
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If you’re sitting in that audience ready to fight me from the very beginning, I’m going to have a hard time getting to you. But if you’ve got a heart at all, I’m going to get it.—Betty Carter
You can talk about her exquisite phrasing: the way she hovers around the beat. But that sort of musical shoptalk barely scratches the surface. Other singers may be able to express joy, or pain, or regret, or longing, or other feelings. But how many other singers are able to convey so many different emotions all at once?
Billie Holiday (with Jimmy Rowles, piano), “My Man,” live
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I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That’s all I know.
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No two people on earth are alike, and it’s got to be that way in music or it isn’t music.
—Billie Holiday
“Check out Gonzales”—a longtime friend (in a recent email)
Gonzales, Piano Vision (2007)
Part 1
Part 2
(Yo, Scott: Thanks!)
music clip of the day 