Listen Better

Black Music History “Giving Them Roses” – Day 8: Billy Paul

8 February 2011

He had a lot more going on than just with Mrs. Jones… Brother Billy Paul… aka Paul Williams is owed a great “My Bad, Player”… When going through the list of unsung artists to “give roses”… of those still walking among us… I didn’t even consider him… It was definitely not because he isn’t worth […]

Happy Birthday, Dilla!

7 February 2011

…to the illest… Check out the JDilla Project…

Black Music History “Giving Them Roses” – Day 5: Les McCann

5 February 2011

Built the bridge from Jazz to Soul… To a certain degree Les McCann’s groundbreaking and breaking of other artists can be compared to Little Richard… Minus the eccentricities… Les pioneered a new genre of soul jazz… Most notably his rendition of “Compared To What”, along with Eddie Harris, merged protest song with jazz… In addition […]

Black Music History “Giving Them Roses” – Day 4: Ann Peebles

4 February 2011

The Stand By Woman… You’ve heard her voice and didn’t know it… You’ve sung her words and had no idea… Whenever clouds appear and rain begins to fall… If you can’t stand it… Well, you can thank Miss Ann Peebles for penning a song that fits your mood… There are few voices as soulful as […]

Do Better Thursday: WAIT!!! Is Hip Hop Back!?!

3 February 2011

Shameless plug… I sell this on a shirt… Is Hip Hop back!?! Ok… I know it’s never left… but admittedly… I did leave it for a period… But it wasn’t my fault… So many of my favorite artists had done the same… Phonte dissolved Little Brother and begun making wonderful music with Foreign Exchange… Outkast […]

Black Music History “Giving Them Roses” – Day 3: Sonny Rollins

3 February 2011

The Saxophone Colossus A fixture in the jazz scene and community from the early fifties to present day… Theodore Walter “Sonny” Rollins was also a mainstay on Saturday mornings during my childhood… Two of his albums were in heavy rotation from my Pops collection… Rollins’ Saxophone Colossus (1956) is regarded as his best work and […]

Black Music History “Giving Them Roses” – Day 2: Al Jarreau

2 February 2011

The Grammy Man Although he was the 2nd artist in history to win a Grammy in three separate categories (1st being MJ…), personally I feel he’s underrated in pop culture… It’s rare that someone would mention his name among the great soul artists of all-time… However, Alwin Lopez Jarreau’s debut album “We Got By” should be […]

Black Music History “Giving Them Roses” – Day 1: Little Richard

1 February 2011

The Genesis of Rock N’ Roll… After reviewing the list of artists receiving roses this month… Richard Wayne Penniman warranted the honor of being 1st… Aside from the fact, I was going to use the design above with the initial of launch on.us.tees… (Worried that not too many would understand why “Be 1st” is included […]

Black Music History “Giving Them Roses”…

31 January 2011

Do Better’s “Black Music History” is back for the third consecutive year! This year, the month of February will be filled with Living Legends. Majority of the artists have fallen out of the Nation’s conscious. Some are still in our thoughts but we tend to wait until they’ve passed on to acknowledged their genius. After […]

Albums Your Parents Should Have Played for You: Isaac Hayes

20 August 2010

Welcome to Albums Your Parents Should Have Played You… It’s my attempt rectify this generations profound ignorance of the wonderful music their mom, dad, aunts, uncles, gramps, grammas and cousins enjoyed growing up… Hopefully, you’ll dig it and spread the joy of Soul Music… If I was alone on an deserted island… and there was […]

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