Soul – ROOTNOTEMUSIC BLOG

The blues according to Nina Simone: my ode to Queen Nina

What hasn’t been said or written about Queen Nina Simone? She has been called an icon, a legend, and a genius, and she is one of my favorite artists of all time and I would be remiss if I didn’t use my blogging platform to honor her music – especially her love of blues and her strong political stance. She passed away in April of 2003 and she has haunted me since. My late father told me a story of being about 16 years old in Hollywood. This would have been in the early/mid 60s. Nina Simone was playing at a club and he snuck in to see her. He met her for a few seconds and she told him how adorable he was. He used to listen to her version “Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” over and over, which the Animals covered a few years later. After my pops passed, I would listen to that song over and over too. It was soothing to my soul. She was incomparable and a complete bad-ass in everything she did.

Here are some of my favorite Nina tracks, starting with the aforementioned:

“Do I Move You?”

Here is Nina’s song, written by her contemporary, Langston Hughes:

“Mississippi Goddamn” was written by Nina in response “to the June 12, 1963, murder of Medgar Evers and the September 15, 1963, bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four young black girls and partly blinded a fifth. She said that the song was ‘like throwing ten bullets back at them,’ becoming one of many other protest songs written by Simone. The song was released as a single, and it was boycotted in some southern states. Promotional copies were smashed by a Carolina radio station and returned to Philips. She later recalled how Mississippi Goddam was her ‘first civil rights song’ and that the song came to her ‘in a rush of fury, hatred and determination'(Wikipedia).”

One of her most ebullient & widely covered songs:

04/26/2014

James Booker: Producer Scott Billington on the enigmatic “Bayou Maharaja” (Part 2)

booker
This post is a continuation of my last post by the same title. We were discussing the genius and legacy of James Booker with renown roots music producer Scott Billington, who produced Booker’s last album, Classified, and through Rounder Records is re-issuing it with previously unreleased tracks. I’ve heard the entire album and would recommend that anyone who is a fan of authentic New Orleans or blues music should have this in their collection. Also, important to note, there is a new documentary awaiting distribution which should also help in bringing a wider audience to this 20th Century unheralded piano genius, “The Bayou Maharaja: The Tragic Genius of James Booker”. The trailer is below the interview. For this post we continue with our conversation with Scott about the art of producing and the art of producing an album with someone as enigmatic as James Booker.

Rootnotemusic: In the liner notes you talked about that this was one of your earliest producing experiences. How did you come to that experience, how did you end up there at that age?

Scott Billington: Well, I was probably really naïve in thinking that I could just walk up to James Booker and say ‘Hey you want to make a record?’ and he would say ‘Sure!’

Rootnotemusic: So you had heard him play at the Maple Leaf and were like ‘I gotta make a record with this guy.’

Scott: Yeah. Soon after I first heard Booker, we [Rounder Records] put out a record he had made in Switzerland, a beautiful record, and we called it New Orleans Piano Prince Live. And then I heard him at the Maple Leaf. My friend Tom Smith, a writer from Connecticut, says ‘man you gotta hear this guy he’s playing in the window of a laundromat.’ The Maple Leaf had washing machines in the back at the time. It wasn’t the iconic club it is today, but it was on its way.
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04/24/2014

James Booker: Producer Scott Billington on the enigmatic “Bayou Maharaja” (Part 1)

James Carroll Booker III (1939-1983) was one of the foremost musical and piano geniuses of the 20th century, yet his name is not as widely known beyond music lovers, musicians, and New Orleanians. That should change because his last album is being revisited by a reissue of his album Classified by Rounder Records by renown roots producer Scott Billington, who did the original sessions for the album in 1983. Scott has produced and played on more than 100 recordings and won two Grammy Awards and has been nominated for 10. I had the good fortune of speaking with Scott this past week about the “tragic genius” of James Booker, who died at the age of 43 before he could become the household legend his legacy deserves. He’s been called the Piano Prince of New Orleans, a wizard, the King of New Orleans Keyboards, a tragic genius, and the Bayou Maharaja. Who was this man who was so talented and brought to the surface so much tragic emotion? Talking with Scott, who knew him well, sheds some light on this enigmatic genius. He suffered from mental illness and addiction which stymied his rise to his proper place among musics’ legendary geniuses. This interview will be two parts as there is too much great info for just one post.

Rootnotemusic: People have called James Booker a genius. What do you see as his specific genius that is different from any other artist that sets him apart from other musicians labeled genius’ of his generation or his style of music?

Scott Billington: He could play more piano than anybody I ever heard. He could synthesize so many different styles of music.

Rootnotemusic: I heard gospel, ragtime, jazz, blues, classical.

Scott: He was a brilliant improviser. He had a classical background. He studied classical music when he was a boy and had a teacher that taught him Chopin and Rachmaninoff. He could do things with his mind that many other people couldn’t do. Earl King, the New Orleans piano player had many Booker stories. One of them was about showing up at a gig and the bandleader handed Booker a fairly complicated score and Booker looked at it for 10 or 15 seconds and Booker said “Okay I got it” and set it aside. And the bandleader said “What do you mean? You can’t play that!” Well he did.

Rootnotemusic: He was a true genius.

Scott: Yeah, Earl King said he had a photo mind, a photographic mind. Earl King told another story about the organist Jimmy Smith being in New Orleans and playing a show. They were backstage and they had an upright piano and Booker was back there and he said to Jimmy Smith ‘I really liked your show, but you made a mistake on the bridge to this song.’ And Jimmy Smith said ‘I didn’t make a mistake.’ And Booker said ‘Yes you did’ and he went to the piano and showed him. And Jimmy Smith said, ‘damn I guess I did.’ Booker said ‘well do you want to hear it backwards?’ and he could play the same song backwards and forwards with both hands at the same time.

Rootnotemusic: Why do you think he never achieved the wider notoriety of other musicians of his talent?
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04/14/2014

DJ Moonbaby’s “Unrestricted” radio show pays tribute to Marvin Gaye

This April is the 30th anniversary of Marvin Gaye’s tragic passing and my girl DJ Moonbaby (my musical soulmate for many years as evidenced by this, this, and this blog post) will be doing a special tribute this coming Thursday, April 10th, on her radio show “Unrestricted” on Acceleratedradio.net which airs on Thursdays 8-10 p.m. PST, and can be accessed via the internet or via the TuneIn, iHeartRadio, or iTunes apps (search Accelerated radio). Moonbaby will be interviewing both Zeola Gaye about her new book “My Brother Marvin” and producer Amerigo Gazaway on his Yasiin Gaye project (with Yasiin Bey aka Mos Def). Moonbaby will be playing some tracks from the Yasiin Gaye project, and some classic Marvin and Marvin-esque tracks:

Here is one of DJ Moonbaby’s choices for one of the best National Anthem performances out there by Marvin Gaye at the All-Star Basketball game in 1983:

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04/07/2014

“Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers…”

I just finished watching the music documentary Muscle Shoals. It is an amazing movie which tells the story of a small rural town in Alabama with a magical connection to the best music ever recorded and the story of FAME studios and Rick Hall, the hard-working producer and owner. This man is the American dream. Coming from abandonment, crushing poverty, and tragedy, he built the studio and the reputation of Muscle Shoals to a world-class studio churning out hits for Aretha Franklin, Percy Sledge, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Etta James, Jimmy Cliff, Lynryd Skynyrd, Traffic, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Candi Stanton, Allman Brothers, and many more. Some of America’s best-loved songs came out of this tiny river town in Alabama like “When A Man Loves A Woman,” “Mustang Sally,” “Brown Sugar,” and too many others to list.

I didn’t know that one of my favorite Aretha Franklin songs, “I Never Loved A Man The Way I Loved You,” was recorded there and this song and album was what catapulted her to global stardom. The intro lines were played by long time FAME Recording Studio keyboardist Spooner Oldham. Aretha launched into the song, they had the cut in about 10 minutes and from that point on she was the Queen of Soul.

If you love American soul music, classic rock music, or music history, put this documentary on your list and get on it. I actually started taking notes during my viewing. The Swampers were the nickname given by Leon Russell to the set of studio musicians who started out with Rick and recorded some of the most beloved songs of our time.

03/28/2014

King of Chitlin’ Circuit Bobby Rush still groovin’ into his 80s: SXSW 2014

One of the highlights of my time at SXSW 2014 was seeing Mr. Bobby Rush (who was nominated this past year for a 2014 GRAMMY Award in Best Blues Album for “Down In Louisiana”). There is a bit of discrepancy as to his age. He told the audience he was 81, however Wikipedia says 73. According to The Encyclopedia of Arkansas Music (where he lived for a while), “Bobby Rush, known as the ‘King of the Chitlin’ Circut’…was born Emmett Ellis Jr…in 1935, however the 1940 census lists him as three years old.” It’s a mystery. But what is clear is how incredible a performer, guitar player, blues vocalist and harp player this man is. He has been on over 200 records and played with the likes of Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Bobby “Blue” Bland, BB King, and Johnnie Taylor.

Here Bobby Rush is on harmonica and vocals for a soulful cover of The Beatles “Come Together”

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03/18/2014

Bobby “Blue” Bland: into the blues pantheon

The first time I heard the song “I Pity The Fool”, I stopped dead in my tracks and was completely drawn in by the growling vocals of Bobby “Blue” Bland. I immediately bought a 2-disc anthology to introduce myself to the man. Born in Tennessee, “Blue” Bland sang iconic songs “Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City”, “Lead Me On”, “Turn Your Love Light On”, and “Farther On Up The Road.” He started out singing gospel and then fell in love with the blues he heard in Memphis and began blending those styles. Later he sang what would be considered R&B of the 70s and 80s. It’s all soul music really, and he was one of the best, along with his contemporaries Johnnie Taylor, Bobby Rush, BB King, etc. (By the way, Bobby Rush and BB King are still touring around, so get to see them. I’ve seen BB several times, but never Bobby Rush, but this festival looks off the chain and I may have to endure the sweltering August Mississippi to go: http://www.jacksonrhythmandbluesfestival.com.) “Blue” Bland sadly passed away June 23 at the age of 83. He left a legacy that generations will enjoy for the years to come.

Here is one of the most well-known songs “Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City,” which Jay-Z and Kanye West sampled.