Betty Wright and The Roots are nominated for a Grammy this year for Best Traditional R&B Performance for “Surrender”, from her album Betty Wright: The Movie; credited to Betty Wright and The Roots and co-produced by Questlove. No stranger to the Grammy Awards, Ms. Wright won a Grammy for Best R&B Song in the early ’70s and has been nominated, including this year’s nomination, three times since. An R&B legend–Ms. Wright had a gold record with “Clean Up Woman” by the time she was 18. In 1988 she made history by becoming the first black female to have a gold album on her own record label. Ms. Wright is a mentor to younger artists, a vocal coach and a vocal producer for such artists as Gloria Estefan, Jennifer Lopez and Joss Stone.
The Roots is one of the best groups to ever do it, with an excellent blend of hip-hop and musicianship. The group is ten albums deep and going strong. And, who could ever forget the truth-telling, eye-opening video for the single “What They Do” in the ’90s. Including this year’s Grammy nomination for “Surrender” with Betty Wright, the group have been nominated for a total of 12 Grammy Awards and has won four. The Roots is currently the house band for the television show Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.
To find out if Betty Wright and The Roots will win, tune in to the Grammy Awards February 12 at 8/7c on CBS.
Raphael Saadiq is a music veteran. He started playing the bass guitar at the age of six. When he was barely 18, he auditioned and won a spot in Sheila E.’s backing band for Prince’s Parade tour. Raphael Saadiq is probably best known as one-third of the R&B group Tony!Toni!Tone!, which put out some bonafide jams in the ’90s like “Feels Good” and Anniversary”. Saadiq put out his first solo album in 2002 and since then he has been no stranger to Grammy nominations. This year’s nomination for Best Traditional R&B performance for the song “Good Man”, from the album Stone Rollin makes a total of 12 nominations of Raphael Saadiq. He has won one. To see if Raphael Saadiq will win this year, check out the Grammy Awards on February 12 at 8/7c on CBS.
“The Sound Of Philadelphia” by MFSB (Mother, Father, Sister, Brother) featuring vocals by the group The Three Degrees was written by Philly Soul legends Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff as the theme song for the television show Soul Train. The song reached #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the R&B chart in 1974. Although the song was re-recorded in different versions over the different eras of black music (’80s R&B, New Jack Swing, Hip-Hop, Neo-Soul) since 1974, “The Sound Of Philadelphia” remained the show’s theme song until the final episode in 2006.
“Someone to Watch Over Me” is a jazz standard composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin from the 1926 musical Oh, Kay!. Several artists have recorded this song, but like her other recordings, Etta James put her soul-stirring stamp on it. The version presented here is not the first version Ms. James recorded of the song in 1962 for the album Etta James Sings For Lovers, but a subsequent version she recorded years later in 1995 for her album Time After Time.
The TV One series, “Unsung”, whose premise parallels one of our goals here at GFM, giving those artists that may not be quite as well known, their well deserved accolades and attention. One of their early episodes featured Phyllis Hyman, which gives us an excuse to share some of her classics with you.
Jill Scott’s rendition of the Bill Withers classic “Lovely Day” is being used by her former label Hidden Beach to inspire a Random Acts of Kindness and Volunteerism campaign.
Hidden Beach explains the video saying:
“The new science of Happiness says that performing Random Acts of Kindness raises Serotonin – the bodies “feel good” chemical. We used kids in the video to depict the giving nature of the campaign. As we kick off the New Year, we wanted to remind everyone that the spirit of the holidays can continue every day of the year.”
The “Lovely Day” music video was directed by newcomer Alex Magana in San Fernando Valley and stars a cast of unknown child actors from Los Angeles. And the track appears on The Original Jill Scott from the vault vol. 1, which was named Best of 2011 by iTunes US and UK.
