Wednesday nights this Summer, an Open mic for Open minds:
hosted by dimi d. & Fatimah
DJ talent & DJ Such N Such
Bring your poems, songs, videos, chants, interpretive dancing…etc.
JUST COME and bring your Positive Energy
FEATURED POETS= Kuumba Lynx
Hot off the presses.. Captain EO will be reopen at the Epcot Center (at Walt Disney World) this July. The ride/film short directed by Francis Ford Coppola and featuring Michael Jackson was originally opened in 1986 and closed in 1994 amidst allegations of abuse. The film was definitely a highlight of my family’s trip to Orlando back in the day. I am sad that Michael had to leave us for this gem of 80s cinematic opulence to return to the world! Jive on.
This is a record that embodies Chicago Grit and Get Down. “Good Lovin” by the legendary Otis Clay is at once a love song and a warning. Take heed. Says he: “And if you walk out my life, I hope you fall and break your neck”. If that ain’t grit, I don’t know what is….
A favorite at my gigs, it’s a mid seventies bluesy stomper with some wah wah sweetening by Benjamin Wright. Released on Echo Records here in Chicago, later on Elka Nationally. Enjoy.
Below, “Love Jones” by Brighter Side of Darkness, performing on Soul Train. Don’t confuse this group with the Jackson Five, as they are aren’t a family act. They were just one in a rich history of Chicago-area based Kiddie Soul groups. The nucleus of the group came from Calumet High School here in Chicago, but 12 year old Darryl Lamont was added by manager Anna Preston to give some Jacksonesque kiddie appeal. Word on the street says that two members of the group were forcibly dropped from the ensemble “for [their] reputed misbehavior” while in L.A. for the taping of the Soul Train episode excerpted below, effectively killing the star turns of the members of Brighter Side of Darkness.
A version of the group would return briefly in 1975 as “The Imaginations”, still jonesing on a cut called “Love Jones ’75″ that begged, “But if you LOVE me……” The group also resurfaced a few years later on Lennie LaCour’s Magic Touch Records under the Brighter Side of Darkness moniker for the creatively-titled Disco cash-in “Disco Ball”; but they never even inched towards the hit status of “Love Jones”. The record was so famous, in fact, that Cheech and Chong at one point recorded a parody….called “Basketball Jones“. Trippy as hell.
Darkjive has been on Summer Vacation, but always digging deeper… I’ve been really into swinging sixties jazz from Chicago, like “Coming to Atlantis” a hip mover produced by Monk Higgins and credited to Freddie “The Creeper” Robinson (on Lead Guitar). The Flip of this 45, called “Before Six” is wonderful, as well.
During the late 1960′s, there was, of course, lots of overlap between soul and jazz scenes in Chicago, and many instrumentals charted on Soul-formated radio (like “Burning Spear” by the Soulful Strings [a pet project of Charles Stepney and Richard Evans at Cadet], and “Soulful Strut” by Young-Holt Unlimited).
Below is from one of my treasured Dorothy Ashby albums (arranged by Richard Evans), “Come Live With Me” (originally featured in the film, Valley of the Dolls). Many of my favorite cuts, not surprisingly, are not on youtube. After all, the revolution wasn’t televised.
Jive on.
Performing below (in Ghana, circa 1971) is Roberta Flack. She is singing “Gone Away”… a cool, loping soul record from her album “Chapter Two”. This record was written by the one-two-three Chicago-bred punch of Leroy Hutson, Curtis Mayfield, and Donny Hathaway (before his own breakout single “The Ghetto”). ”Gone Away” was also recorded by The Impressions and Lovelace Watkins (in a Chicago recording session) around the same time, 1970. Look for the crescendo around 3:00 (sampled for T.I.’s hit “Whatchu Know About It”). Jive on!
When you think of 1960s TV, what do you think of? Gilligan’s Island? Or perhaps The Munsters? Just don’t forget about I Spy (one of my absolute favorites). Imagine: the mod, mod world of the sixties, international espionage and thievery, and two American spies: Robert Culp as Agent Kelly Robinson, whose cover is as a former Princeton law student and Davis Cup tennis player; and Bill Cosby as Agent Alexander Scott, a Rhodes scholar whose cover is as Robinson’s Tennis coach as well as being a language expert (yes: a black tennis playing dude with a gun on TV in the mid-sixties). The show is an exercise in style and stealth, relying more heavily on crafty spy work than explosions; and the deliberate pace (a testament to the times) keeps me captivated.
My favorite aspects of the show include the great, globetrotting on-location shots, the intelligence of the writing, and the truly global cast of characters represented, all of whom are presented with dignity. Another notable factor was the palpable bond between Cosby and Culp. In fact, Cosby recently stated to the LA Times, “We almost had our own language”.
Click here for ”So Long, Patrick Henry”, an episode from 1966 in which An expatriate African-American living in Africa must regain his citizenship before enemy agents kill him.
Brown Sugar Soul is a monthly after-work set where I spin a natural sugar high of old school funk and soul with no filler every 1st Thursday at the renowned Brown Sugar Bakery (which is, in fact a bakery… not a club with a clever title). Tip: they are famous for their caramel cake.
Join me and get down!
Brown Sugar Soul, spun by DJ Ayana (and graciously hosted by Stephanie Hart)
I just found a copy of “Woman of the Ghetto” by Marlena Shaw for 4 bucks! Killer Chicago recording from 1969. The song has been sampled multiple times, among them:
St. Germain sampled from “Woman of the Ghetto” from Live at Montreux used in “Rose Rouge” on Tourist (2000)
9th Wonder and Buckshot also sampled “Woman of the Ghetto” in the track “Ghetto”, and Evil Dee (of Black Moon)’s remix of the same song.
Early integration of a Kalimba in popular western music. Richard Evans production. Jazzy Funk mastery. Lyrics below. Nuff said.
I was born, raised in a ghetto
I was born and raised in a ghetto
I’m a woman, of the ghetto
Won’t you listen, won’t you listen to me, legislator?
(ging, gi-gi-gi-gi-ging…)
How do you raise your kids in a ghetto?
How do you raise your kids in a ghetto?
Do you feed one child and starve another?
Won’t you tell me, legislator?
How do make your bread in the ghetto?
How do make your bread in the ghetto?
Baked from the souls in the ghetto
Tell me, tell me, Legislator?
Strong true,
my eyes ain’t blue
I am a woman
Of the ghetto
I’m proud, free,
Black, that is me
But I’m a woman of the ghetto
(ging, gi-gi-gi-gi-ging…)
How do we get rid of rats in the ghetto?
How do we get rid of rats in the ghetto?
Do we make one black and one white in the ghetto?
Is that your answer, legislator?
How do you legislate, brother?
How do you legislate, brother?
When you free one man and try to chain up another,
Tell me, Tell me legislator?
How does your heart feel late at night?
How does your heart feel late at night?
Does it beat with shame, or does it beat with pride?
Won’t you tell me, legislator?
(na-na-na-na-na-na-na, …)
My children learned just the same as yours
As long as nobody tries to close the door
They cry with pain when the knife cuts deep
They even close their eyes when they wanna sleep
We must all have identity
That’s the only way that we can be free
Now peace, you say
is all that you ask
But self-respect is a separate task
You may be sitting up there
in your ivory tower
60 stories tall
Now you may have seen at least one ghetto
But I wonder have you lived there at all?
Places like Watts,
ah, Detroit, tell me
Chicago, ah tell me,
Tarell Alvin McCraney’s “In the Red and Brown Water,” now playing at Steppenwolf’s Upstairs Theater, is an exercise in duality that lends itself to complete immersion, an exercise in which you’re left like a used bag of orange pekoe (feeling purposefully spent).
Reality blends with chorus-driven fantasy, magic with carnality, and comedy with tragedy in this heartfelt display. Oya, the lead character, is played hauntingly by Alana Arenas. Ms. Arenas, who I caught lunch with after the show (she likes bruschetta), is a whisper-quiet left hook: a spirit to be reckoned with (in life and on the stage).
Set in a Louisiana Housing Project, “Water” is a story of a Golden Girl, and how one decision (made at the cusp of womanhood) sends her down a pathway to a more tarnished reality. Ms. Arenas imbibes an undeniable warmth as Ora, chasing the shadows of potential, of love, and of dashed dreams of creation. Also stand out in the play were Jacqueline Willams and Steppenwolf ensemble members K. Todd Freeman and Ora Jones.
Part of the Brother/Sister Trilogy of Plays (all playing in repertory at Steppenwolf), In the Red Brown Water plays until May 23rd. for more info, visit steppenwolf.org. Jive on!
The Return of Captain EO: This was it.
Hot off the presses.. Captain EO will be reopen at the Epcot Center (at Walt Disney World) this July. The ride/film short directed by Francis Ford Coppola and featuring Michael Jackson was originally opened in 1986 and closed in 1994 amidst allegations of abuse. The film was definitely a highlight of my family’s trip to Orlando back in the day. I am sad that Michael had to leave us for this gem of 80s cinematic opulence to return to the world! Jive on.
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