Visitors to GFM should know how we feel about cover songs… we love them so much that we try to highlight at least one a week. As we’ve often stated a great song begs to be covered and this Marvin Gaye classic is no exception. So it was a no-brainer when the team that supports great friend to GFM Jayanti sent over some footage of her live performance from Holland Got Soul 2012 that we would post.

What can one say except that when you have the convergence of a great song, a great vocal performance and a great band you know that there’s going to be magic in the air. We are hoping that Jayanti will be a name that you will hear a lot more from in 2012 and in the years to come. Today, we just wanted to provide a little taste.

Originally posted June 1, 2010

The title of this post culled from the chorus of the 1981 song”Words” by Missing Persons. Check out the video for the impact of the chorus.

The inspiration for this post is my usual rambling about the state of affairs in our beloved world of musica.

How many times have you heard someone say “I don’t listen to the words, I just like the beat”. Ok, how many times have you challenged those same persons by asking them to see how many instrumentals they have in their music collection? People may not pay attention to lyrics consciously but they are paying attention on a subconscious level because I have yet to see in a very, very longtime an instrumental top the charts. Oh it happens and has happened but I’m trying to think has it happened in the last twenty years?

So maybe words do matter, and I might submit to you that what we take into our subconscious is very important. We may not be actively analyzing the subject matter but rest assured even in a passive state the mantras that we repeat from any chorus may become part of our reality.

Now if you are reading this post you realize that I am in effect preaching to the choir, but we all know someone who is totally oblivious to the influence that lyrics they don’t listen to (wink, wink, nod) might have upon their worldview.

Should every song contain some sort of social commentary? No. Aren’t there some songs that are just about having fun? Absolutely. But often you really have to question certain persons definition of “fun” these days.

I believe that in order to be an exceptional writer, you should be an exceptional reader. Great writers are usually very well read. Reading often prepares you to have something to say about the world because you will often discover things about the world and yourself through ideas, concepts, and philosophies presented by an author.

Also, great writers pull from a wealth of experiences. Leave your front gate, get out of your neighborhood, do something uncomfortable and then put it in a song. Great writers are honest. Talk about what you know about, not what you heard, not what your think the industry wants to hear.

Finally, great writers are usually great editors. Be critical, not to the point where you’re not productive, but the first thing that comes into your head is not always the gospel truth. What’s the rush? Better that you edit and re-edit until it’s right, instead of rushing to be first with something that is mediocre at best.

I constantly have to remind myself that we have to take baby steps, but steps nonetheless. Instead of reading Shakespeare(which by the way I think is important) why isn’t there an opportunity in our public schools or another public forum to create some balance by analyzing the entire lyrics to Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On or Public Enemy’s It Takes A Nation Of Millions to Hold Us Back or any other other landmark lyrical statement. That’s how you should discover how to write and how to listen for great lyrics. Because this is a process for the artist and the audience as well.

One of my favorite lines from a song is: “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.”-Eden Ahbez “Nature Boy” So simple, yet so poignant. Maybe we can get back there.

Here’s to listening, here’s to words!

I believe I’m going to label 2011 the year of the “check this out” music discovery app. Hundreds of submissions hit the inbox every week, but when someone who you trust their musical sensibilities sends you something with the instructions to “check this out” everything else moves down a notch or two in the queue. Such is the case with Rotterdam based singer/songwriter Jayanti. I’m glad I followed instructions and I hope you will be spurred on to checkout her music, her total artistry from this very candid and thought provoking series of interviews. Make sure to check back for the conclusion that you don’t want to miss coming up this Friday Sept. 30th.

GFM: Tell us a little bit about your influences…

Jayanti: My mom and dad separated when I was a year old… but before that when my mom was pregnant my dad would play the drums, cause my dad was a drummer. He would be practicing all day and it would drive my mom nuts. But I liked it, because at a certain point they both told me that we would have sort of a game: He would do something on the drums kind of a rhythm, a simple rhythm on the drums and I would kick back. I would kick the same rhythm back to him. And then he would do it again and I would kick back. So I believe that would be the absolute start of everything.

That’s why at a certain point they thought I must be a boy… cause you know? As a baby my dad would still be practicing his drums and mom has a very vast record collection, my mom is East Indian so she has a record collection consisting of a lot of Soul Music, Reggae Music, she’s a huge MJ fan, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding all that kind of stuff. Then on the other side she has a lot of Indian Music. The Indian Singers, especially the female Indian Singers, they sing with a very, very high pitch so… as a baby with your tiny vocal chords, that sounds like something you can do. So I would sing along with all the Indian singing. I loved to do that. I had two big loves as a baby: Chaka Khan and Michael Jackson. I would lose my mind as soon as Michael Jackson would be on TV as well as with Chaka Khan.

Two of my first words were Chaka Khan. My mom remembers that she had a Chaka Khan record and she was playing her music, I looked interested I guess, well weeks later she was on TV and I lost my mind and crawled to the TV set. I started banging the TV set trying to touch her and saying Chaka Khan and my mom didn’t realize that I remembered her from the record. I’d say it started really early with the influences, I always really responded to music. I started singing really early on.

So here in Holland we have Trams. They’re like subways but they’re above ground not anymore, but the old ones made a lot of noise. It was a high pitched sound especially when they were braking before a stop. My mom tells me that I would really embarrass her on the Tram as a baby, because I would imitate those sounds. Those really high-pitched sounds, turning them into a song and as soon as the Tram would stop I would stop. As soon as it took off again I would go, everyone would cheer me on and my mom would get embarrassed. My mom is shy and I’m not. Little things like that influenced me.

Later on when I was five years old, we were at a wedding and I saw the band. I was like wow. I was really diggin’ it. I told my mom “I wanna sing a song too!” She was like “Really? Are you sure? It’s a big stage a lot of people, are you sure about that?” I was like “Yeah, I wanna sing the song I always sing.” So I got on stage and sang Michael Jackson’s “Ben”. For years my staple song was “Ben”. People went wild and I believe up until this day, that was my best paid performance. Everyone wants to just you know hand money to the kid.

After that, in my early teens it evolved into doing a lot of Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey songs. Every female singer out there has been influenced by these two. Later on I started discovering the lower end of my voice. I started listening to a lot of Anita Baker. That was a blast from the past because my dad would listen to Anita Baker a lot. I was a big MJ fan and everything I did was MJ: “Ben”, “Ain’t No Sunshine”, “I Wanna Be Where You Are”. All the talent shows that I would participate in I would sing Jackson 5 Songs and wear an Afro wig.

My dad really wanted me to hear different types of music and he would say “You need to listen to this!” In hindsight, he would purposely play a lot of Anita Baker on my weekends with him. He’d say things like “When you grow up you’re going to be a singer like Anita Baker.” I’d say “No way! I’m going to be a singer like Janet and Michael Jackson.” No way, I didn’t like it, I didn’t like the lower register, the alto sound, I wasn’t diggin’ it at all. The only song I like was “Same ‘Ole Love (365 Days Of The Year)” because it’s kinda of a happy song.

As I started growing older I really started listening to Anita Baker again. I discovered that it was very comfortable for me to sing in those keys. So then I started working on that, singing songs like “Body and Soul” and “Sweet Love”. I still work on songs like “I Apologize” as my go to song to work on my lower notes. These are my main influences vocally.

Melodically and as far as writing goes, Stevie Wonder(Is a big influence). I listened to a lot of Stevie Wonder, the way he writes… it’s just from another planet literally. “Rocket Love” those lyrics, I don’t know… how do you come up with that you know?

Marvin Gaye, is a big influence in the way he’s painting with the vocals. Learned a lot from that. But all in all my biggest idol would be Michael Jackson. I listened to a lot of Michael Jackson as a kid. Headphones on really studying the way he did everything, mainly his voice. I know a lot of people are always harping on his dancing, but his voice is incredible. So my main influence would be Michael Jackson but then all the other people that I mentioned.

GFM: Tell us a little bit about the inspiration behind your single “Girl From Mars”

Jayanti: There’s a story behind “Girl From Mars” well the story is… the title is not mine. I’ve been working with this guy Al Mar for a while. We met like ten years ago and we were in like a hip hop musical and he was still singing in a close harmony group. Eventually he left the group and started playing piano and producing.

They way it happened with “Girl From Mars”… they way he produces songs for me, he would really make them with me in mind. So with this song he made a loop and had already named it “Girl From Mars” it’s his title. I’m the person who will always write the lyrics… all the lyrics are mine and all the melodies, if you remove all the music then it’s all me. Everything you hear the vocal melodies, vocal arrangements anything having to do with the vocals I made that.

Usually the title is mine, but this time it was already there, the loop was called “Girl From Mars” he always has very interesting titles for his loops, but this time it kinda stuck. Normally it will be the working title and then I’ll overrule but this time I was feeling it. He’s (Al Mar) known me for such a long time, and yeah this time the title made sense. So he played it for me and I said, “Wow, I’m really feeling this.” I started singing and right away I made that hook. I still have it on my computer somewhere; I just instantly made the hook with the words and everything.

So I said “Yeah I think I’m going to just keep this title.” We were just playing the song and playing the song and I was coming up with different vocal arrangements and I said, “I’m going to take this home and write to it.” When I got home I just started playing the loop and writing.

Basically what the song is about is: whenever I meet new people they will always say something like, “I’ve never met someone like you.” Or “You’re different.” I consider myself just a regular normal person but, if you keep hearing this you figure that you have to do something with that … over the years so many people have told me that you’re too sweet, you’re naïve, you shouldn’t trust everyone the way you do. It’s such a waste of love, not to just give love to whomever, I’m not talking boyfriend and girlfriend love, just love. I’ll walk into a store and I’ll have a nice conversation with the lady in the store and then I leave… I think every encounter with any human being is worth giving your full energy and your full love to them and not everyone agrees, but that’s just the way I feel.

I don’t feel it’s a loss, I don’t feel I’m losing something being nice to someone I don’t know or someone I’ll never see again. I don’t care if I don’t get anything out of it except for the energy. So that’s what the song is about: You can absolutely take the energy I have if you need it and I don’t need anything in return. If you wanna take a little bite, then take a little bite and keep taking that’s fine because I think it’s(love) an infinite source.

I think love just multiplies when you give it so that’s what the song is about and there’s another layer, a fun layer. I don’t know how it happened but I have a lot of guy friends, so that’s another layer, people who know me know that about me. Men are very interesting… I just like the straight-forward nature of men, but then again I also really, really love women. The intricate design of a woman is very interesting to me… I just really love people. But I have no problem interacting with six guys and I’m the only girl. Also, when you’re in music that tends to happen a lot, you need to hold your own with a bunch of men and their jokes… that’s also what the song is about and also I’m a dreamer.

I’m really big on escapism. People will also tell me that I’m in this cocoon or this bubble. I consider myself an extremely social hermit. I’ll be by myself wherever I go, but it’s very easy for me to talk to people, but people will still perceive me to be on some sort of island or something. So that’s what the song is about, I think.

Go here to check out Pt. 2 of the interview.

Checkout the video for Girl From Mars

*Cue Kriss Kross* The subject of this editorial has been on my mind for a minute… wrote a song about like to hear it? Here it go!!!

Add me, confirm me, follow me please
If you have a little time can you rate how I sing?

I had to stop after those two lines to write this. But seriously, what I’m ranting about today is the ever present (especially as it relates to music) “I’m about to do this or that” that you cannot escape from on any social network whether it is a “celebrity” or someone who aspires to be. I have certainly been guilty of using that phrase, I still probably use it from time to time but my problem is the incessant “I’m about to-ers”. You know the folks that out of the 24hours in each day that we’ve been allotted 18 of those hours they are on Twitter or Facebook talking about what they are going to do musically. Oh they are out there… some successful and some not so, some talented and some not so.

This may just be a personal hang up but I don’t care about the about, I care about the did or done. I care about the product. Sure I peek into the process is ok every now and then but often we’re not even talking about the process, we’re talking about talking about beginning the process if that makes sense? Maybe I’m old, maybe I come from a time and place where I like the curtain to open after the production has been well rehearsed. Maybe I don’t care about the minutiae of getting everyone on your “team” on a conference call or that you were about to practice but the drummer is late again. Who hangs around and watches the oven preheat? Matter of fact who hangs around and watches the oven bake? Put that timer on and when you hear the beep go take that cake out let it cool, put the icing on and call me when it’s ready.

Maybe it’s a mystery to me but I’ve played music for a longtime and if you play an instrument most of them require the use of two hands. So how does one equate excessive texting, tweeting, whatevering when you’re practicing, playing a gig, writing, recording or my favorite word “producing”? I’m not saying that you shouldn’t promote yourself, but at the same time I think that the end product is more important than anything you are about to do. Most of the music that I have gravitated has not been because the artists themselves have said to check it out, it has been because other people have enjoyed the music and recommended it. Let me say that again: other people, not you incessantly updating musician person.

There is a concept/practice in Indian Classical music called a Chilla were basically as a musician goes into a period of seclusion for 40 days or sometimes longer where you are basically cut off from the outside world and it is only you and your music. This practice is done to not only transform one’s music but one’s life. Some of my favorite artists of all time I believe participated in their own westernized form of a Chilla. Folks like Marvin, Miles, Jimi, Stevie, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Prince, Janet and Michael and on and on. You can point to a time where their art was one way, you didn’t hear from them for a while and once they returned it was something completely different, it was like they had spent time with their music and themselves and they had something to say. Does anyone out there think that What’s Going On would have had the same impact if from June 1970 til January 1971 when the single was released Marvin constantly and consistently updated us about what he was about to do in regards to the recording?

Yes I know we live in a different time with a different amount access to artists and everyone but one thing I believe remains as important to us now as ever and that’s a little mystery wrapped up in the element of surprise. Who doesn’t like a surprise? Especially when it’s a pleasant one? A word of caution artists… if you take the time every now and then to shut everything down, go away and deal with just you and your music you might end up with something like this:

It would be a gross understatement to say that the music of Marvin Gaye is a gift to us all. But I just couldn’t find the words to adequately express how I felt when I heard this musical excerpt so masterfully orchestrated by David Van De Pitte.

We usually only are able to witness the sum of genius but when you have an opportunity to hear the parts that make up the sum it opens up an entirely new universe. If you love music this will be one of the best 30 sec. experiences of your life. I’m serious. This is why I often rant and say the things I do about keyboard string patches and keyboard horns and on and on and on. When you hear all of this color, these wonderful sonorities (culled from two chords mind you) it makes you just wanna throw rocks at anyone who has lied to you and said that a keyboard can do everything that living, breathing musicians can. I’m here to tell you that some people have been lying and the reason that they lie is because it benefits them. I don’t have anything but music, so I have no reason to lie to you. But don’t take my word for it just press play.

A Gift by iorr03

Here we go again… last week I made the statement that sometimes when the inspiration strikes you just have to go with it. This is another one of those moments. So many thoughts come to mind watching, listening to this clip.

1. You know I often give a lot of thought to the state of music education in this country. For those schools that are still fortunate enough to have music programs why isn’t music like this part of the core curriculum? And I don’t mean going out and buying one of those hackneyed, dumb-downed arrangements I mean teaching the students how to play this arrangement note for note and every nuance. That would be an undertaking that would take a while but can you imagine how much learning could occur? The first step would be just listening/experiencing the music until you get it into your bones. Sure, you could spend some time writing it down but that doesn’t tell the full story here: You’ve got to know it, feel it, and then play it. I have the utmost respect for the so-called masters that so much emphasis is put on, but there are other masters of music and we need to start putting them into the proper context. Hell, at the high school level there could be an entire semester dedicated to the music of just Marvin by himself. Could you imagine how we could turn this music world upside down, when you have thousands of kids listening to this music for homework?

2. I just have to say a few words about Marvin… that voice, that voice and lastly that voice. The control, his effortless execution and the joy in his delivery. He’s not calling this performance in he is feeling every word of this song. This stage is his pulpit and he is delivering this message with the conviction of someone who has lived the words in their song. I also want to point out the class in which Marvin performs, when he invites the young lady on stage to dance with him… class. What happened to class? This is another lesson that could be learned while watching this clip, not to objectify but celebrate and respect the fairer sex.

3. I know I’m sure I’ve said this somewhere along the way but if you consider yourself a singer in the long tradition of soul singers and you don’t know the music of the true soul masters you haven’t done your homework and you should go sit down. When I say the homework I mean you should be able to quote some of these classic soul licks and lines verbatim. Doesn’t mean you don’t develop your own sound, you have to develop your own sound, but in order to get there you have to first imitate then assimilate and then you innovate. Now that’s not mine you can thank Clark Terry for that but that philosophy holds true across the board for music every instrument, every genre. Do your homework, do your homework, do your homework. If you don’t put in the time we’ll know..

Marvin and Marvin Sr. from 1977…

A new series of thoughts on music from characters Tim and Tip.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the video are solely those of the characters, not Grown Folks Music or the diseased brain of their creator(me). Enjoy!

Only slightly objectionable language is this clip.

From the 1976 Album I Want You a classic song from a classic album in the lexicon of GFM.

GFM fans, get ready for a musical journey as DJ Phaze takes you back in time with the likes of Minnie Riperton, Marvin Gaye, Teddy Pendergrass, Lyn Collins and more.

Hit the jump for the playlist and the arrow to download…. Enjoy!

We Miss You Throwback Mix by GrownFolksMusic

You Take My Breath Away – Minnie Riperton
Computer Love – Zapp
Diamond In the Back – Curtis Mayfield
Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) – Marvin Gaye
Mercy Mercy Me – Marvin Gaye
When somebody loves you back – Teddy Pendergrass
Outstanding -The Gap Band
Strange Affair -Minnie Riperton
More Bounce – Zapp
Ain’t Nothing Goin’ On But The Rent – Gwen Guthrie
SO RUFF,SO TUFF – Roger Troutman
THINK – Lyn Collins
Kung Fu – Curtis Mayfield
The Ghetto – Donny Hathaway
(Not Just) Knee Deep – Parliament Funkadelic
The Glow Of Love – Luther Vandross
Boogie Nights – Heatwave
The Groove Line – Heatwave
Got To Give It Up – Marvin Gaye
You Dropped A Bomb On Me – The Gap Band