Willie Mitchell 1928-2010 Teddy Pendergrass 1950-2010

It seems I only pop up on here at the moment to mark the sad passing of another legend but while I had held off as long as possible I felt I had to post something to reflect the passing of both Willie Mitchell and Teddy Pendergrass.

Two extremely different artists, both men have soundtracked some of the most romantic and downright dirty moments of my life. This isn’t in anyway trying to cheapen their music, Teddy’s solo work was well versed on the art of seduction and heartbreak (that voice!) and Mitchell’s instantly recognisable sound was the perfect accompaniment to Green’s sexual growls and Peeble’s strident voice amog many others.

There’s been some great tributes to Mitchell on our blog list over the last week and I expect something similar for Pendergrass so I’ll leave you for now with a couple of youtube clips after the jump that sums up their talent. Back with some hopefully happier posts shortly.

Monty Stark

It pains me to follow up one RIP post with another but I heard today that Monty Stark, an extremely talented and under recognised musician, passed away on 26th November after a long battle with cancer.

Most famous for his work on the legendary rare and quite brilliant The Stark Reality Discovers Hoagy Carmichael’s Music Shop album which I featured on here a few years ago . Monty found a new audience with a compilation version released by Stones Throw in 2003 however he had actually been continuing to work in all the years in between and other evidence of his talent can be found on his website.

RIP.

Derek B 15 January 1965 – 16 November 2009

RIP to an artist who despite breaking boundaries within the UK music industry never really got the respect he deserved.

Michael Jackson 1958 – 2009

Rest in peace to a man whose music recordings from the sixties, seventies and eighties has stuck with me throughout my life and who was a true childhood hero of mine. Despite all that has happened to him in the last twenty years at a time like this I’d like to separate the media stories from the music. I’ll never forget practising my MJ dance in front of the mirror before school discos and his music will forever be associated with many great memories for me.

If you have the chance, play at least one Michael Jackson song today and remind yourself that, whatever is true or false with all the stories that have come out over the years, just how much amazing music he left behind in his forty year career.

Everyone has their own favourite period of Michael Jackson’s career, be it his early soul, the move to the more loose funk sound, the disco or the power pop. The fact of the matter is that he made classics in all these genres.

There’s not really such a thing as a rare Jackson release and I don’t want to put up his entire catalogue so here are a few personal favourites that will be being played out in my household today.

Jackson Five: 2-4-6-8

Jackson Five: Maybe Tomorrow

Jackson Five: Mamma Got A Brand New Thing

Michael Jackson: Off The Wall

Norman Whitfield (1943 – September 16, 2008)

Marvin Gaye: That’s The Way Love Is and Cloud Nine
From: That’s the Way Love Is [Motown, 1967]

As a follow up to yesterday’s post on Whitfield. The news is now sadly confirmed and I wanted to add a couple of tracks from his work with Marvin Gaye throughout the sixties. In my mind at least Whitfield was a major factor in Gaye’s transition from being a smooth pop soul singer to the earthier , more experimental singer who became a legend. The obvious choice to prove this would be I Heard It Through The Grapevine (produced and written by Whitfield) but I doubt there’s few people who can’t hear that song in their heads as soon as the title is mentioned so instead above are a couple of the tracks the two crafted together from Gaye’s 1970 album That’s The Way Love Is.

The title track is a great example of Whitfield taking a song he’d written for one group (in this case the Isleys) and turning it into something entirely different. Gaye’s version is swimming with psychedelic soul as Whitfield slows the tempo way down from the original and lets Gaye deliver a great vocal over the top.

Gaye’s version of Cloud Nine offers an interesting comparison to the Temptations version yesterday and works extremely well in it’s own right as Whitfield once again shows his skill at taking his won song and crafting something new out of it. I’ll leave it up to you to decide which version you prefer.

RIP

Norman Whitfield (1943 – September 16, 2008)

Temptations: I Know I’m Losing You and Ain’t No Sun Since You’ve Been Gone
From: With a Lot o’ Soul [Motown, 1967]

Temptations: Cloud Nine
From: Cloud Nine [Motown, 1969]

Undisputed Truth: Smiling Faces Sometimes
Available on: Smiling Faces: The Best of Undisputed Truth [Gordy, 1971 ]

It’s a sorry state of affairs that I seem to be posting up an RIP tribute post every other week at the moment and it’s particularly distressing when the subject of that post is one of my favourite soul producers of them all, Norman Whitfield. Although I’m still unable to find any reliable news confirmation of this it seems to be spreading round the web so I can only assume the news is sadly true. One of the greats of the Motown producer/songwriters, Whitfield would be up among the titans for his work with the Temptations alone, not even taking into account the brilliance of much of his work with other artists from Marvin Gaye onwards.

This news caught me off guard so I haven’t got anywhere near enough of Whitfield’s extraordinary discography at hand to do him justice (particularly the development of his sound in the early seventies) but I thought I’d put up a few of my favourites that I did have available to give you a taste of the wealth of talent he brought to soul music in the sixties, seventies and beyond.

RIP.

Isaac Hayes 1942 – 2008

Soul legend Isaac Hayes passed away at the weekend at the age of just 65.

I don’t throw around the term genius too lightly but for me at least Isaac fits readily into that category. Undoubtedly one of the biggest influences on the development of soul from the late sixties to the eighties as well as on my own musical education the man was a true great of the industry and leaves behind a catalogue that will be loved and appreciated for many years to come. I’ll never forget the first time I heard his version of Walk On By and its impact is still as strong today as when it was recorded near on 40 years ago.

Oliver over at Soul Sides has put together a tribute post which captures everything I could want to say and more beautifully as well as featuring a couple of Isaac’s greatest hits, I highly recommend checking it out.

I don’t think I have any more words that can put into perspective this man’s life so I’ll just leave you with this classic Hayes performance from 1973.

Black Moses RIP.

Mildama – Clifford Brown & Max Roach
from the album Brown and Roach, Inc. on EmArcy Records (1954).
Drum Conversation – Max Roach w/ The Bud Powell Trio
from the album Jazz at Massey Hall, Vol. 2 on Debut Records (1953).
Fleurette Africaine – Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach
from the album Money Jungle on United Artists (1962).

This is a little, but today let’s honor the passing of the jazz titan Max Roach on August 16th. It is difficult to encapsulated with any kind of brevity the magnificent breadth and depth of Roach’s life and career, so I will not be attempting in this short space to do that. Instead I’ll direct you to this excellent obituary in the New York Times.

Instead, I’d like to treat you to some tracks of Roach’s from my favorite period of his long and always interesting career, namely when he was helping define the hard bop sound of the early 1950s. “Mildama” is a Roach contribution from the quintet he lead with trumpeter Clifford Brown. Essentially a drum solo with slight flourishes from the band, Roach displays his bombastic fills simultaneously with his ability to consistently keep the rhythm in the pocket. Just listen to how metronome regular the high-hat is through the rolling ebb or flow of the middle half of this traffic…Roach was a technical genius. “Drum Conversation” is a full on live drum solo from the recording session at Massey Hall that produced the famous Quintet concert. The opening press roll sadly gets a little lost in the recording fidelity, but again Roach opens up and really tears throw some exciting moments. Extended drum solos can often descend into wankery, but I always stay engaged wondering what Max might try next.

And finally, to contrast the pile driver ferocity of these tracks, I’ve selected the brilliant “Fleurette Africaine” off my favorite jazz album of all time Money Jungle. Here Roach’s texturing and brush work is the epitome of restraint and gentle shading. Roach melds perfectly with Mingus’s bass and Ellington’s spare piano.

While the tracks here give a tiny taste of Roach’s extreme skill as a drummer, they only hint at his efforts as a composer, activist (Freedome Now Suite!), industry pioneer (started Debut Records one of the first artist owned labels), educator (long time professor at UMass), and general all around stud (truly deserving of the unofficial title bestowed by his receipt of a MacArthur “genius” grant).

For further reading and some excellent videos check out this page from Drummer World.