It’s your girl WestStyle Chronicles signing in from my “sex therapy” with Robin Thicke in the ATL – gosh, I love my job!!! With long lines and a pretty thick crowd (no pun intended), that wasn’t going to stop your girl from getting the “up close” for this anticipated performance. Plus, I didn’t have to stand in the line. Lol!!!

Dressed in usual sophistication, Thicke wasted no time in ripping the stage and telling his female clientele to “Shake It For Daddy”. We can all guess who “Daddy” is. From start to finish, his performance had a lot of energy. From every song to every word, the audience was with him. The only thing I regret is that he never sang his single “Sex Therapy” but aside from that, it was a great experience. Here are some clips from the great concert.

Find more videos like this on Grown Folks Music

One of the first posts I contributed to GFM was entitled I’m With the Band! Really? If you have not read it, you can take a peek here. Since writing that post I have given a lot of thought about the concept of a band(or just live music in general) especially as it relates to the Grown Folks Music we love. At the dawn of this new decade one thing has become apparently clear to me: The importance of developing a live music presence. A strong, consistent, and compelling live music presence.

A few weeks ago I was reading an article on the Pollstar website about the top touring acts of the first decade of the 2000′s. I must say that I was not surprised to find out that The Dave Matthews Band topped the list(I say that with a lot of hometown pride. One day I may do a Bruce Springsteenesque post about “My Hometown”). Nevertheless, there were a few surprises, or maybe not so much surprises but a few realizations and questions that accompany.

When I said that I was not surprised about DMB being at the top of the heap it is because they have had a strong, consistent and compelling live act for almost 20 years now. It has always been about the music, not the celebrity. At some point in time this year I will go into greater detail about some of the practices that I believe were key in their development of a devoted live fan base.

Now, I’m certainly not advancing the theory that every career must be validated by this list. Quite the contrary, what I am saying is if we examine the list we will notice some trends that facilitate longevity. In other words when was the last time Jimmy Buffett had a hit single on the radio? Exactly. But quite frankly the point is it doesn’t matter because somehow he grossed $285.8 million(that’s million with an m) in concert receipts over the last decade.

What I believe many artists and producers of music need to concern themselves with over this next decade and beyond is that somehow that I alluded to above. How do you create and cultivate a culture or community that moves when you move. It doesn’t matter the scale it just matters that the movement will support the art that you create.

I don’t think that the movement can be all virtual. As much as I love zeroes and ones(and I do)there’s one thing that is not in the binary code and that is…air. There’s a certain intangible that happens to a person when you hear and create music in a live manner. I believe what has happened over the last 30 years or so is the live music experience has been supplanted by the studio production in numerous genres of music. I think a few of us have been sold a faulty bill of goods in that respect. How do I know? Just look at this list save for a few, most of these acts came up the old-fashioned way…playing.

One of my favorite groups of all time: bassist/keyboardist/lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and writter/drummer supreme, Neil Peart, collectively known as Rush.

30+ years going strong. 24 Gold Records, 14 platinum albums and fourth behind The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Aerosmith for the most consecutive gold or platinum albums by a rock band (Wikipedia), yet somehow still underrated.

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Official Website


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Jazmine Sullivan with a nice live version of Seal’s “Kiss From A Rose“.

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Check out Seal live after the jump.

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Image Source: www.kokotaylor.com

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Taylor family.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Koko Taylor more than once said she hoped that when she died, it would be on stage, doing the thing she loved most: Singing the blues.

She nearly got her wish. The Chicago musical icon died Wednesday at age 80 of complications from gastrointestinal surgery less than four weeks after her last performance, at the Blues Music Awards in Memphis, Tenn. There she collected her record 29th Blues Music Award, capping an era in which she became the most revered female blues vocalist of her time with signature hits “Wang Dang Doodle,” “I’m a Woman” and “Hey Bartender.”

Taylor died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital 15 days after her May 19 surgery. She appeared to be recovering until taking a turn for the worst Wednesday morning, and was with friends and family when she died.

“Koko Taylor’s life and music brought joy to millions of people all around the world and Chicago is especially honored that she called our city her home for more than 50 years,” Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley said. “The strength of her style was formed in the night clubs of Chicago’s South Side and she carried that spirit with her wherever she went. She was an ambassador for our city and truly was the queen of a kind of music that makes people think of Chicago whenever they hear it.”

Among those with her Wednesday was Bruce Iglauer, owner of Chicago-based Alligator Records, who was her producer, manager and friend since 1974.

He recalled that Taylor had a similar surgery in 2004 and was on a ventilator for nearly a month. “The doctors were very discouraged then about her coming back, and she willed herself back to life,” Iglauer said. “We were hoping she would do the same this time.”

Born Cora Walton in 1928 in Memphis, Tenn., Taylor literally got up off her knees to become a blues icon.

Growing up on a sharecropper’s farm outside Memphis, young Cora and her three brothers and two sisters slept on pallets in a shotgun shack with no running water or electricity. By the time she was 11, both her parents had died. She picked cotton to survive, and moved to Chicago in the early ’50s to be with her future husband, Robert “Pops” Taylor, who died in 1989. She found a job working as a domestic, scrubbing floors for rich families.

She had sung gospel music in church while living in the South, and on weekends would attend the blues clubs on Chicago’s burgeoning South Side scene, the heyday of Chess Records and such stalwarts as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Willie Dixon. She would occasionally sit in and caught the ear of Dixon, who approached her in the early ‘60s about recording one of his songs, “Wang Dang Doodle.”

“I didn’t know Willie Dixon from Adam’s house cat,” Taylor recalled in an interview with the Tribune. “But he says to me, ‘I love the way you sound’ and, ‘We got plenty of men out here singing the blues, but the world needs a woman like you with your voice to sing the blues.’ ”

Taylor’s 1965 hit recording of “Wang Dang Doodle” launched her career, and established her sound: a gruff, no-nonsense roar that was the female equivalent of Howlin’ Wolf’s baritone growl. By becoming a band leader and a powerful voice in a male-dominated scene, she broke down barriers for many female entertainers who followed.

“Some of the lady singers who were working little local clubs, or maybe just attempting to sing in choirs and churches, they got into the blues scene because of Koko,” said Bob Koester, founder of Delmark Records. “Zora Young, Big Time Sarah, Shirley Johnson – they were inspired to try to come out and sing blues because of Koko’s success. Without Koko, that might not have happened.”

But when Chess folded in the early ‘70s, Taylor was back where she started, scrapping for a living.

“It was a devastating time for my mom,” Taylor’s daughter, Joyce “Cookie” Threatt, once told the Tribune. “Then she met Bruce [Iglauer]. It was like God put him there.”

Iglauer had never worked with a female vocalist before on his fledgling label, which was dominated by guitar-playing men. But he was impressed by Taylor’s moxie and her sound.

“She was of the same generation as Muddy and Wolf, she had those [Mississippi] Delta roots,” he said Wednesday. “Even though she had been living in Chicago since the ‘50s, her music was still deeply rooted in the South. She had that rhythmic sense, that sense of where you lay the words and how the band locks in around the singer, that intensity of people who have lived that life.”

Taylor was already a distinctive artist when she came to Alligator, and with Iglauer’s help began exploring a more vulnerable side to her persona on select ballads such as her epochal version of the Etta James hit “I’d Rather Go Blind.” Even when recording other people’s material, the singer put her idiosyncratic touch on it, usually singing it a cappella in the studio, with the musicians following her.

Taylor never adopted the blues lifestyle of hard drinking and philandering that consumed some of her peers. She was a devout woman, but at the same deeply appreciative of how the blues communicated honestly and directly about everyday life.

As her daughter once told the Tribune: “She grew up singing in [the Baptist] church in Memphis, and people come into church to get washed. They don’t come in there already clean.”

At the same time, she was not one to mince words. She could be devastatingly direct with anyone who crossed her.

“She was meticulous about her music, so if her band screwed up, they would hear about it,” Iglauer said. “She would not bite her tongue.”

For her, the blues was life. She bounced off her death bed in 2004 to write and record another album, the aptly titled “Old School,” released in 2007 on Alligator. It would prove to be her final recording, though Iglauer said that in recent months Taylor was calling him and singing new songs over the phone.

“She was scheduled to go to Spain next week,” he said. “She was still performing. At the Blues Awards in Memphis a few weeks ago, she was absolutely glowing. She would be exhausted standing by the edge of the stage, but when the lights went up, she would hop up and dance as soon as the music started. She would always say, ‘If I can brighten one person’s day with my music, that’s what I live for.’ ”

Survivors include her husband, Hays Harris; daughter Joyce Threatt; son-in-law Lee Threatt; grandchildren Lee Jr. and Wendy; and three great-grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

greg@gregkot.com

The Tribune’s Howard Reich contributed to this report.

Source

Official Website

Erykah, off her 1997 debut album, Baduizm (Kedar) with ‘Other Side of the Game‘ (Erykah Badu, Bro ?uestlove, Richard Nichols, James Poyser, The Roots).

Her latest album, New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) is available for download now.

You can catch her out on tour now, or all over the web; MySpace, website, OkayPlayer, FaceBook & quite frequently on Twitter.

Check our more videos after the jump.

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You can never go wrong with a little Miki Howard in your daily rotation. Hopefully, there’s more new music in the works.

You can pick up her latest album, Private Collection
from Amazon or iTunes.

Check out more from Miki after the jump.

MySpace

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“Until You Come Back To Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do)” (Morris Broadnax, Clarence Paul, Stevie Wonder) Miki Howard (Atlantic/1989).

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Select Live Special Band (Al Jarreau, Miki Howard, Joe Sample)
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There’s been a lot of talk these days about Auto-Tune vs. Vocoder vs. Talkbox, and it’s role in music today. For producers, engineers and vocalists, there’s been alot to love about the industry’s best kept secret, but with all technology, there’s always room for abuse.

Well, you know where we come down, but thought we’d spend some time enjoying the music of the most well known (greatly missed, and under appreciated) innovators of the sound, Roger Troutman and Zapp.

For those who aren’t familiar with how Auto-tune works, or the myriad of ways it can be used, check out this clip.

Tribute to Roger Troutman (Music and Talkbox by Rufus Troutman III) “Amazing Grace” from the album, No Compromise.
 

R.I.P. Roger & Larry Troutman

The incredible Leela James. Nothing but raw, pure, unadulterated soul, funk, energy and realness. Unlike most of what you see today, you get a REAL show. We’re definitely looking forward to the new album, Let’s Do It Again (Shanachie/2009), dropping 3/24. Big shout-out to RealSoulMusic for the clips from the North Sea Jazz Festival.

“Soul Food” Live @ North Sea Jazz Festival 2006 (A Change Is Gonna Come/Warner Brothers/2005)

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Leela James on MySpace

(No Doubt cover) “Don’t Speak” Live @ Heineken Music Hall ’06 (Eric Stefani,Gwen Stefani)

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“When You Love Somebody” Live @ Heineken Music Hall ’06 (Leela James, Puff Johnson, Gordon Williams)(A Change Is Gonna Come/Warner Brothers/2005)

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“My Joy” Live at the North Sea Jazz Festival ’06 (My Joy/Warner Brothers/2003)

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