Bob Marley has been embraced the world over for his message of peace, love, and music. Ranked #11 on Rolling Stone’s list of “The Greatest Artists of All Time”, Marley made a lasting mark on not only Black history but music history as well. Amongst the tumultuous times of the 60’s and the 70’s, which were rich with racial discrimination and cultural intolerance, Bob became a voice of compassion.Like the good Dr. King, he did not fight with anger against hate, instead demonstrated perseverance in the face of people who did not believe in the unity of all humanity. “Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)”, recorded live in 1975, asks you to forget your troubles and dance. So today, “emancipate yourself” and just dance.
By the time they recorded this Norman Whitfield track, The Jackson 5’s longtime association with Motown was slowly coming to an end. The brothers were bristling under Berry Gordy’s bubblegum thumb, eager to explore the kind of epic funk exemplified here, but on their own terms. (When the boys implore, “Play it, Tito!” it’s not Tito who responds.) Two years later, with the exception of Jermaine, they jumped to CBS, where they became captains of their own success rather than the cherubic front for armies of songwriters and session musicians. Little Michael, rest his soul, topped them all by becoming a worldwide institution, an icon for all time. Some 40 years after their debut—breathless trails of headlines aside—the lasting essence of the Jackson legacy is the ability to evolve past childhood novelty into an independent creative force. We didn’t have to just dance and hum along.
Having already displayed her vocal chops with soul, funk, ballads and disco, Chaka Khan experiments with jazz on “And the Melody Still Lingers On,” her interpretation of Dizzy Gillespie’s “Night in Tunisia.” Featuring Herbie Hancock and Gillespie himself, as well as a Charlie Parker sample, Chaka and producer Arif Mardin add lyrics that pay tribute to the classic original composition. When it arrived in 1942 “it was new and very strange” but subsequently “paved the way for generations from Coltrane to Stevie.” “The past you can’t ignore, the torch is lit, we’ll keep the flame,” vows Chaka, at once saluting the past while being very much in the present. The performance also foretold her future – one of Khan’s 22 Grammy nominations would be for Best Jazz Vocal Performance in 1983. Sixty-eight years after the debut of “Night in Tunisia” and twenty-nine years after Chaka’s version, its melody still lingers on.
Film producer Sig Shore brought the world Superfly in 1972. In 1975, he stepped behind the camera for That’s The Way Of The World, a movie that starred a young Harvey Keitel, and featured rising R&B act Earth Wind & Fire. E,W&F played “The Group”, a band caught in the middle of record company politics with Keitel as the producer who believes in and fights for them. And the music. The soundtrack, provided by Maurice White and the band, was released as Earth, Wind & Fire’s 6th album and went Gold almost immediately – eventually selling over 3 million copies. In addition to hits like “Shining Star,” “Reasons” and the title cut, it included dazzling tracks like “Happy Feelin’”, which features Maurice White on kalimba, an African thumb piano. (Kalimba is also the name of White’s production company.) Kalimba is a Bantu word which means “little music”, but there’s nothing little about E,W&F or this song. And, even though the album was a smash, the film disappeared into obscurity. That’s the way of the world, I guess…
With the help of Teddy Riley, Keith Sweat laid a foundation for the New Jack Swing movement with 1987’s “I Want Her.” Spacious, reverb-laden kick drums provide ‘street’ bounce and digitally synthesized snares lend a hip-hop edge to mellifluous R&B vocals on the first New Jack Swing song to hit the Billboard charts. Topping at #1 on the R&B chart and #5 on the Hot 100 chart, this song spawned an era. From Bobby Brown’s “Don’t Be Cruel” to Paula Abdul’s “The Way That You Love Me,” with many songs in between, including most of Michael Jackson’s Dangerous album, many artists would further embrace and build upon the New Jack Swing sound.
