Mercury SR 61070 – United States – 1965

Prophecy SD-6055 – United States – 1972

Verve V/V6-8679-ST – United States – 1967

Sussex SXBS 7011 – United States – 1972

A&M SP-4230 – United States – 1969

Liberty LOM 16004 – United States – 1967

1. Ghetto – Hathaway, Donny
2. Inner City Blues – Washington, Grover Jr.
3. Woman Of The Ghetto – Shaw, Marlena
4. Pusherman – Mayfield, Curtis
5. Home Is Where The Hatred Is – Phillips, ‘Little’ Esther
6. Stone To The Bone – Brown, James
7. Expansions – Smith, Lonnie Liston
8. Also Sprach Zarathustra – Deodato
9. Stratus – Cobham, Billy
10. Shaft – Hayes, Isaac
11. He’s A Superstar – Ayers, Roy
12. Superfly – Mayfield, Curtis
13. Summer In The City – Jones, Quincy
14. For What It’s Worth – Mendes, Sergio
15. Steppin’ Stones – Harris, Johnny
16. Nubian Lady – Lateef, Yusef
17. I’d Rather Be With You – Collins, Bootsy
18. Straussmania – Salinas, Daniel
19. Children Of The Ghetto – Pine, Courtney
20. Other Side Of Town – Joseph, Julian
21. By All Means – Mouzon, Alphonse
22. Look Of Love – Hayes, Isaac
23. If You Want Me To Stay – Stone, Sly
24. Why Can’t We Live Together – Thomas, Timmy

I want to be part of every note, every single moment going on in the studio. I want nothing forgotten, I want nothing missed. I’m a perfectionist. The producer should decide what kind of music is being made, what it’s going to sound like–all of it, the why, when and how.

It still amazes me he wrote all these songs

Producer Says ’We were like a fly on the wall in his life,’ Quincy Jones III tells MTV News.

NEW YORK — Lil Wayne lives by his own rules when it comes to recording music and, apparently, when it comes to making movies too.

The rapper is the subject of the forthcoming documentary “The Carter,” set for a straight-to-DVD release Tuesday. The film, much like Wayne’s records, is anything but conventional.

In fact, according to the project’s producer, Quincy Jones III (“Tupac Shakur: Thug Angel,” “Beef”), the Cash Money Records lyricist shunned the idea of a typical documentary in favor of a more raw, vérité look at his life.

“Typically, when we do documentaries, we sort of have a general understanding of what story we want to cover, and we’ll go get interviews to cover the gaps in the story. And we’ll do a lot of historical background and summarizing and stuff like that,” Jones told MTV News. “With Wayne, he was like, ‘I don’t want to do anything that’s really missionary. I want to give this a whole, new, fresh approach, so I don’t necessarily want to do a formal sit-down interview.’ And, I think, long-term, that worked out better for us, because sometimes when people do sit-town interviews and it’s like a formal interview, you have a chance to do knee-jerk responses, and a lot of the questions will be similar to what other people have asked him. In this case, we were like a fly on the wall in his life for, like, seven months before he dropped [Tha Carter III] and about two or three months after.”

On Thursday night, E! reporter Ben Lyons and Shade 45 satellite-radio host Angela Yee hosted a screening for “The Carter” at Manhattan’s Landmark’s Sunshine Cinema. The film follows the superstar on his travels to Amsterdam, Los Angeles and all points in between. The documentary opens with the rapper in his hotel room overseas, where he’s recording material via a makeshift setup: a laptop, headphones and his trusty microphone. Wayne dances to a track that’s inaudible to the audience. Soon, he starts rapping aloud, and it’s part of what would later become his verse to T.I.’s “Swagga Like Us.”

Throughout the documentary, which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, Wayne is captured in a series of candid moments. Though Wayne was never formally interviewed for the project, he agreed to let the cameras film him, and several members of his camp spoke at length about him, from Birdman to manager Cortez Bryant to daughter Reginae Carter, who playfully kicked a rhyme that showed her own musical skills.

The film was stuck in a legal battle when Lil Wayne attempted to have the project’s release blocked. Earlier reports suggested he was unhappy with the final cut. Jones said the rapper actually saw the finished version of the documentary and was ecstatic over it. The producer said he’s unsure what caused the grievance but offered that the film is a fair and “intimate” look at the life of one of hip-hop’s hottest MCs.

“That’s a real special time in his career and life [when we filmed him]. He’ll never get that window back,” Jones said. “That’s, like, the best time. We caught him leading up to Tha Carter III and then right after, when he went platinum [in the first week of release]. We were on the bus with him when he got the message. It was cool, because I think this is probably by far the most intimate film we’ve ever done, because he gave us so much access.”

(Source)

This is it

Aqui no blog, prestamos a falar sobre tudo aquilo que envolve os acordes, os tons e as letras. Prestamos aqui a falar sobre a áurea da música, sobre o sentido social da arte, sobre a disposição dos artistas em fazer música.

Falamos sobre o conceito que cada artista procura. Sobre a busca de uma música proposital.

Falamos sobre o design da música

Michael Jackson sempre foi conhecido como o Rei do pop, aquele que canta, dança, compõe, interpreta, cativa. “MJ” era o líder de vendas de um álbum – por Thriller, nos EUA.

Só que para quem não conhecia Michael Jackson tão bem, não se sabe se ele era um cantor ou um músico comprometido com o som, com os ensaios, com a própria banda, com os arranjos. Se Michael era realmente o rei do pop ou se parte do que ele significa também era devido a seu produtor Quincy Jones – que foi parceiro dele nos três primeiros álbuns, incluindo Thriller.

E no começo desse ano, Michael ensaiava para a volta aos palcos, para uma turnê de 50 shows que teria sua abertura em Londres.

This Is It é um documentário que dá conta de mostrar as gravações dos ensaios para essa turnê. This Is It são ensaios, e apenas ensaios. São raros os depoimentos, são raras as intervenções.

O filme mostra uma banda perfeitamente ensaiada, executando magistralmente as músicas de MJ, mas não é por isso que This Is It veio parar aqui nas linhas do blog.

A entrega de Michael Jackson aos ensaios é impressionante. Apesar de que suas declarações dizendo que “deus ama a todos” soam um pouco forçadas, a dedicação com a sua própria música é invejável a qualquer músico do planeta.

Ver o sincronismo dos dançarinos, o profissionalismo dos músicos, a preocupação – as vezes até excessiva – do diretor de palco, o trabalho de iluminação, de produção de vídeo. Não tem como não ficar de queixo caído para o preciosismo de This Is It.

Só para o nosso amigo leitor ter uma idéia do que o filme mostra, é possível notar, em diversas e diversas cenas, a perfeição com que MJ executa seus passos, onde a câmera se divide em duas, mostrando dois ensaios diferentes, e a repetição dos passos de MJ é praticamente idênticos.

Tudo é pensado. Tudo é milimetricamente pensado.

Quando falamos aqui no blog, em linhas e entre-linhas, que nada pode ser aleatório, é justamente disso que falamos. De um artista que procura, como o próprio Michael diz em certa cena, levar o espectador a lugares em que ele nunca esteve.

A arte tem de ser responsável pelas emoções que causa ao espectador. E o artista TEM de ser responsável por sua arte.

Ou seja, numa regra de três simples, o artista é responsável pelo espectador. É o artista que escolhe o tanto de trabalho que ele quer ter com um show. E Michael Jackson estava, decididamente, disposto a ir até o fim para fazer um show jamais visto.

Infelizmente, This Is It é o Making Off de um show que jamais existiu. Michael Jackson foi, mas deixa um legado invejável.

O artista desaparece, mas sua obra fica, servindo para sempre de inspiração.

Ins-piração.

por Igor Fediczko

Jackie Jackson

Es el hermano mayor de Michael Jackson e integrante del grupo familiar

Tito Jackson

El segundo hermano del clan Jackson, era el guitarrista de los Jackson Five

Jermaine Jackson, otro de los hermanos Jackson. Fue integrante de la banda familiar hasta que el grupo cambio de casa de discos  y él se quedó como solista en la Motown

Marlon Jackson

Es el hermano que va por delante de Michael, compartian un vinculo especial entre ellos. Era vocalista de la banda

  Randy Jackson

Es el pequeño de los hermanos Jackson. Sustituyó a Jermanine cuando dejó la banda

Berry Gordy

Fundador de la casa de discos Motown. Contrató a los Jackson Five en la década de los sesenta

Quincy Jones

Productor de Michael Jackson. Colabaró con el Rey del Pop en los siguientes discos: Off The Wall, Thriller, Bad .

Ya sabemos el significado de “cosmic blues”, comprendemos que su contenido es positivo, cultural y estamos enterados de que es uno de los mejores programas de radio de blues a nivel nacional. A estas alturas, ya debe ser un hábito encender nuestros estéreos cada domingo en punto de las 19 horas para sintonizar el 89.7 del f.m.

Todo esto se debe gracias a los dos años consecutivos de osadía y trabajo arduo para crear conciencia en nuestra radiofonía en la ciudad de Monterrey y su área metropolitana. Sin embargo, a su vez, esto no hubiera sido posible sin el esfuerzo de su conductor, Chester Draven y, por supuesto, de su productor, Ángel Lozano.

“Dos años” se dice fácil, pero seguramente no lo son. Es por esto que el día de hoy, hago una pequeña mención y una gran felicitación y las buenas vibras a estos dos grandes personajes que han conseguido ganarse nuestra simpatía cada fin de semana durante este grato periodo. Este Domingo 15 es el festejo magno de la segunda celebración del blues en su máxima expresión en nuestra ciudad a través de la frecuencia modulada, y para ello, Chester nos amenazó con arrojar la casa (bueno, la cabina) por la ventana y aseguró prepararnos una sorpresa de locos (por cierto, yo también tengo la mía).

Desgraciadamente y por alguna razón inexplicable, no soy digna de decir que vengo escuchando a los máximos exponentes del blues desde el inicio de la transmisión  dominical, pues apenas llevo alrededor de  medio año recopilando información y descubriendo cuan grande el mundo del blues puede llegar a ser. No obstante, he aprovechado cada emisión a tope, al grado de reunir a los artistas que Chester nos ha regalado a lo largo de los últimos 20 programas (aproximadamente).

No puse fecha y es muy probable que el orden de aparición en esta lista no sea correcto, pido una disculpa, pues perdí la orientación. Además, también es posible la ausencia de algunos músicos mencionados en los últimos seis meses, pero si la idea es hacer una colección con lo relevante del blues, el siguiente catalogo esta en muy buena disposición para lograrlo:

Little Walter
Howlin’ Wolf
Miguel Botafogo (Don Vilanova)
Mississippi Blues Band
Texas Blues
Lester Williams
Johnny Copeland
T-bone Walker
Sunset Heights
Howling Wolf
Carey Bell
Sonny Boy Williamson
Victor Uris
Rory Gallagher
Gary Moore
Jonny Lang
Debbie Davies
Rory Block
Deborah Coleman
Ana Popovic
Susan Tedeschi
T44 Blues Band
Albert Collins
Kansas City blues
Robert Johnson
Jeff Beck
Derek Trucks
Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Big Mama
Ray Charles
John Ussery
Al Green
Eric Clapton y Babyface
Tracy Chapman y B.E. King
Christina Aguilera y Dr. John
Clarence Gatemouth
Eric Clapton y buddy guy
Jimmy Vaughan
Leann rimes
Quincy Jones
Etta James
John Mellencamp

Así que no se pierdan el programa de mañana, pues promete ser de primera clase y no es para menos, es claro que dos años bluseando no se cumplen todos los días…

ENHORABUENA PARA COSMIC BLUES Y MUCHOS AÑOS MAS DE VIDA PARA EL PROGRAMA!!!

click aquí para accesar a la estacion de radio vía on-line

Após um hiato de novos posts falarei rapidamente de Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Para os que ainda não tiveram o prazer de ter contato com a música desse incrível gênio dos sopros, essa é a oportunidade. Cego desde os dois anos de idade, Kirk desenvolveu técnicas ímpares como tocar até três instrumentos de sopro simultânemante (normalmente o sax tenor, o Manzello e o Stritch), falar e soprar flauta ao mesmo tempo e utilizar de técnicas de respiração circular (respirar o mesmo ar expelido, prolongado as notas por um tempo extendido)… fora as diversas flautas que tocava (inclusive uma com o nariz) apitos, sirenes.

Este disco foi gravado em 1972 no famoso festival de Montreux mas somente lançado em 1996, mais de vinte anos após a morte de Kirk vítima de um segundo derrame (digo segundo porque ao sofrer o primeiro derrame, Kirk teve uma paralisia parcial em um dos braços e então continuo tocando somente com uma mão). Incrível, não?

O material deste disco é rico apesar dos 48 minutos de música. O líder é acompanhado por um quarteto, mas para variar é ele quem brilha do início ao fim do disco. Além da irreverência e absoluto controle dos instrumentos que toca podemos também ouvir breves falas de Kirk, sempre muito animadas. Destaques para a levada “funk” de “Volunteered Slavery”, “Serenade to a Cuckoo” (do disco “I Talk with the Spritis”, todo tocado em flauta) e “Pedal Up”. Álias para quem quiser ver um vídeo deste mestre em ação segue o link de “Pedal Up” (com direito a apresentação de Quincy Jones):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0JJmwq7KXQ

Abaixo a lista das músicas de “I, Eye, Aye” e o quinteto.

1.Rahsaantalk 1
2.Seasons
3.Rahsaantalk 2
4.Balm in Gilead
5.Volunteered Slavery
6.Rahsaantalk 3
7.Blue Rol No. 2
8.Solo Piece: Satin Doll / Improvisation
9.Serenade to a Cuckoo
10.Pedal Up

Rahsaan Roland Kirk (tenor sax, manzello, stritch, clarinete, flauta, flauta de nariz, sirene);
Ron Burton (piano);
Henry “Pete” Pearson (baixo);
Robert Shy (bateria);
Joe “Habao” Texidor (percurssão).

(Infelizmente não é fácil encontrar discos de Roland Kirk. Um dos principais discos dele, “Rip, Rig and Panic”, é possível encontrar em boas lojas de Cds como a Livraria Cultura que possui um belíssimo acervo. Já discos como “The Inflated Tear” (o melhor em minha opinião) ou “Domino”, por exemplo, uma opção é buscar no site da Amazon. Já comprei dezenadas de cds de lá.)

Clifford Brown recorded three classic collaborations with singers in the early 50’s. Of the three (which included dates with Sarah Vaughn and Dinah Washington), Helen Merrill has had the least distinguished career since. I like to compare Merrill’s career to that of Nancy Wilson: both had fantastic debuts in small group settings that featured a notable soloist (in Wilson’s case it was the Cannonball Adderley Quintet), and both continued to have careers drenched in strings and superfluous arrangements, none of which matched the magic of the initial small-group settings. With arrangements courtesy of a young Quincy Jones, the nonet that appears on Helen Merrill with Clifford Brown remains one of the smallest groups that Merrill ever recorded with. This is particularly strange because Merrill’s voice works much better in a smaller context; she does not have much projection, and her soft, whisper of a voice fits perfectly among minimal support. Her style was far more effective when she was young, and unfortunately it did not develop quite as well as one would have hoped as she got older. Thus this date finds her in her prime and to this day remains her best outing.

You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To

What’s New

Born To Be Blue

Sure, Helen Merrill isn’t the most versatile of singers, and her voice can certainly grow tiresome, but if there was ever a perfect vehicle for her, this 1954 date was it.

Long before I woke up to the real truth of the illuminati et al I knew that to make it in Hollywood required much more than talent. You had to know and make happy the right people which equated to sleeping your way to the top. Now years later I find out that was true. And not just sleeping with the producers and directors but also pledging allegiance and taking oath to the Baphomet ( satan). In the Music Biz before a record deal is signed musicians must become an initiate witch. So I am including several interesting videos on this subject as well as one about comedian Dave Chappelle who has walked away from Hollywood. Rumor Mills called him crazy and on crack- but the fact was he did not want to sell his soul and walked away from a $50 million dollar contract. The money wasnt worth it and its soo refreshing. Of course he hasnt publicly revealed all he knows about Hollywood but he certainly has alluded to something being terribly wrong. If he did divulge he would end up like Tupac Shakur and Michael Jackson who were murdered for breaking THE OATH. ( The Oath being you wont reveal whats really going on with the Illuminati behind the scenes) It makes you wonder how many others have been killed in various ways for doing the same thing or how many others have just quietly walked away and forfeited success? At the very least Dave Chappelle will stand some day before YHWH and not be condemned for bowing to the Baphomet. He is still doing comedy gigs in small clubs etc.. but in one interview he said ” the higher up I got the unhappier I became” No kidding! For every step one takes up the ladder of success the more you must sell out. Just not worth it in the scheme of things eternally.

Videos at bottom shows different Masonic Symbols ( Okay sign really is an eye of Horus or 666- and also Devil horns/ Rock on – V peace sign is Victory/5 sign – hand on heart and Hidden hand are also masonic)

((WARNING!!!: Graphic Language. My apologies I dont condone it but it is part of the videos/ music lyrics etc)

Please check out my post on Michael Jackson and why he was killed – HERE

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Dave Chappelle ( a few different short clips of interviews on video)

Tupac Shakur~ Breaking the Oath ( 2 parts)

Is Lil Wayne Gay??

Lil Wayne kissing buddy Baby – Exposed!

More about Hip Hop and Illuminati sell-outs

Seattle Times
Ray Charles and Quincy Jones were teenagers when they met in a Seattle nightclub, one of dozens clustered around Jackson Street in the 1940s. They were both aspiring jazz musicians, Charles a pianist, Jones a trumpeter. They were among many now- familiar names who got their start in Seattle: Buddy Catlett, Ernestine Anderson, Gerald Wiggins, Floyd Standifer. Jones and Charles eventually achieved the most fame, moving beyond their original genre, becoming stars of pop and R&B. The pair collaborated on the seminal 1961 album “Genius + Soul = Jazz,” which featured Charles on the Hammond B3 organ, with members of the Count Basie band, performing big-band arrangements by Jones. The scores that came out of that collaboration will be performed by Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra in two shows this weekend as part of the Earshot Jazz Festival, which ends Sunday.

Most people who have achieved anything will tell you that greatness is just about getting started and plugging away. This interview segment from the Academy of Achievement with Quincy Jones is another testiment to that concept:

How did you learn to play in the first place?

Quincy Jones: “I just started playing. Just do it. Just blow in it and sound bad for about a year and then make it sound a little bit better, and you get a little band together, and then you get a few jobs. You take four guys that sound half bad, but if they’re 25 percent each, they can give 100 percent, you know? There were four guys, including Charlie Taylor and Buddy Catlett; we got together and we practiced every day.

I was writing this thing called “A Suite from the Four Winds,” and on the trumpet parts I put a little asterisk and said, “Play all B naturals a half step lower because it sounds funny if you play it B natural straight.” I didn’t know there was a key signature of a flat on the third line that would take care of all that. But, you know, you just learn step by step. Somebody finally said, “Idiot! You know there are key signatures. There’s one flat, two flats, three flats.” And, “Oh yeah, key signatures. That’s a great concept.” It’s 500 years old, right?”

R&B Popstar Chris Brown will be the first star to grace the cover of the newly revived VIBE Magazine. The magazine founded by Quincy Jones in 1993 folded in June this year, but has recently been bought by InterMedia Partners who have decided to resurrect the Hip-Hop publication and cut the frequency to 4 over 2010. The magazine once had a readership of 800′000 a month.

The new VIBE issue is due out on December 8th, be sure to get yours.

Oh Yeah, apparently the cover is meant to be spilt with rapper Drake but you know once Chris is on it no one aint checkin’ for him.

IMG|SOURCE: Mediapost

A real producer should be able to produce any style of music-Quicy Jones

The words “great” and “greatest” appeared several times during my research into Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979), both on the Internet and from books that I own.

Why was I looking for references about her? Because I had come across her name yet one more time, recently, causing me to go over the tipping point, not able to resist getting to know her better.

Last week a friend had given me a book, What to Listen for in Music by the composer of quintessentially American music, Aaron Copland, and in the foreword by Alan Rich was a reminder that Copland had been a pupil of Boulanger.

Leonard Bernstein congratulating Nadia Boulanger, after she became the first woman to conduct the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in a full concert, February, 1962. [Secondary Source]

Most simply put, she can be considered “the greatest” because she was teacher to so many renown composers and performing artists, some of whom were great teachers in their own right—Aaron Copland, for one.

These are some of the American students of Nadia Boulanger:

Although Leonard Bernstein’s name is linked for many reasons with that of Nadia Boulanger, he apparently was not a pupil of hers. But, he was a pupil of a pupil of hers: Walter Piston.

Boulanger, in 1928, rejected as a student one of America’s most important composers, George Gershwin. “What could I give you that you haven’t already got?” she asked him. [Source]

I most recently saw Boulanger’s name while reading Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation, by Noël Riley Fitch. Beach was the owner of the famed “Shakespeare & Company” bookshop in Paris to which Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ford Maddox Ford, Ezra Pound and many other writers of the 1920s and 1930s gravitated, along with musicians and other artists. Several of these musicians and future composers were in Paris because of Nadia Boulanger, thus offering the creative and disciplined influence of these two remarkable women who apparently never met each other. In chapter seven of her book, Fitch offers these anecdotes:

Aaron Copland (1900-1900)

Most of the regular customers of the bookshop were writers, but among them were four composers: Satie, Antheil, Virgil Thomson, and Aaron Copland…Copland, who had joined the lending library [of the bookshop] had time to read [Sylvia’s] books in spite of being worked “terribly hard” by Nadia Boulanger, the great French teacher of musical composition to more than a generation of American composers…Because of Stravinsky, Ravel, Schönberg, Strauss, Satie and the music school of Nadia Boulanger, young American composers went to Europe, particularly Paris, to complete their professional education. In America, musical training was predominantly Germanic and old-fashioned, but in Paris, according to Copland, Boulanger knew “pre-Bach to Post-Stravinsky…cold.”

Although only the names of male composers have entered this narrative so far, Nadia Boulanger was teacher and mentor to a number of women in the field of music. In A History of Classical Music, on which I commented previously, the author, Barrymore Laurence Scherer writes:

Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953)

During [Ruth Crawford's] European travels she was embraced by such pre-eminent musical figures such as Bartók, Honneger, and Nadia Boulanger…Among Nadia Boulanger’s American students were other women who achieved positions of distinction as composers, among them Marion Bauer (1882-1955) and Louise Talma 1906-1996). Bauer…had learned French from her parents; when introduced to Boulanger…in 1906, she offered to give Boulanger English lessons in return for lessons in composition, and thus became Boulanger’s first American student.

But, what was it like to study with Nadia Boulanger; what was so special that the most talented people sought her out? We can get a glimpse from Philip Glass.

Around a year ago I bought the book Writings on Glass: Essays, Interviews, Criticism, edited by Richard Kostelanetz. I have been fascinated with Glass’s music for almost two decades, especially since having viewed and bought the film Koyaanisqatsi, for which he wrote the musical score. The film has no spoken dialog. “In the Hopi language, the word Koyaanisqatsi means ‘crazy life, life in turmoil, life out of balance, life disintegrating, a state of life that calls for another way of living’” [Source]

In an early chapter of the book we learn that Glass went to study with Boulanger in 1963, at age 26, because a musical colleague whom he admired had studied with her. Glass had already completed his studies at the Juilliard School of Music.

(Transcribed from an interview by Ev Grimes)

Boulanger wasn’t interested in the music I had written…I started studying first species counterpoint with her again…I studied counterpoint and harmony with her for over two years…

She had a variety of techniques that she was teaching. They included score reading, counterpoint, harmony, figured bass, and analysis…With Boulanger, nothing was theoretical; it was all practical. The rules of harmony she could describe in a few sentences, but you could spend years writing it, because to her the difference between technique and theory was that technique was practice. Harmony is practice, counterpoint is practice—neither is theory…

You took three classes with her a week…[The] Black Thursday class…was a special class…[Y]ou were asked to that class; you couldn’t request it. She put together six or eight students…It would start at nine o’clock and would go till noon. The subject of the class was announced at the beginning, and we rarely accomplished it…When we left the class, we would sit in the café across the street. No one would say anything; we would have our coffee or a beer, then we would part until we got together the next week. No one would say anything [repeated]. It was totally demoralizing in one way. We all knew we were either her best students or her worst students, but none of us knew which ones we were…

One can read more of Nadia Boulanger and her teaching goals and methods from these sources:

List of students and others associated with Nadia Boulanger

[Click!]

Michael Jackson

This year I spent my Halloween – aside from watching Game 3 of the World Series – seeing Michael Jackson’s This Is It.

Somehow Jackson’s death bred more ignorance than ever before – or at least I heard it more often. I truly believe to the depths of my soul that the allegations of child molestation are as true as President George W. Bush being intelligent.

Here was a man who had no childhood whatsoever, and was constantly abused by – and afraid of – his own father. He had no idea what it was like to sit at home and watch TV, or go outside and play with his friends; his freedom was taken away before it even began, and as an adult, all he wanted to do was regain some part of it. His genuine innocence and immaturity in the social areas of his life were clearly noticeable, as if he were still a child. So when he had children over all the time, and let them sleep in his bed with him, to him it was just a slumber party, and nothing more. He, himself, felt like a child, so he spent time with many of them, and made sure that their childhoods flourished and were fully enjoyable, unlike his own.

The portion of his life that was full of maturity and confidence, was linked simultaneously with his music. This Is Is showcases his perfectionism and attention to detail in making music, and performing it. He truly intended on giving his audiences what they paid for, and more, with detailed videos filmed in front of green screens, lights, fire, a cherry picker, and cinema-style costumes, just to name a few amazing aspects of the would-be performances. Nothing went without fine-tuning and perfecting, from dance steps, to melody, to tempo, to video and lights [someone very closed to me once worked with Jackson and said that he actually stopped rehearsal and had a light moved before continuing - he understood and paid attention to it all]. The show was not to go on with anything or anyone out of place. This documentary was an appropriate look into what lent a hand in keeping Jackson going, and the only facet of his life that contributed to any sanity, safety, and happiness that he may have held on to. It shows his character, credibility, talent, as well as his kindness and honesty toward those he worked with and loved, and the true dedication and love for the music he made. It was wonderful to see a glimpse of what would have become of those rehearsals. I’m deeply saddened that those shows did not come to fruition.

Michael Jackson was not a child molester. He was a man who loved children, as a friend and as a father. He was a man who loved our planet, and those who showed love, kindness, and respect for him as he did for them; a visibly gentle, creative, and empathetic soul, who will never cease to be missed on so many levels. The tears of appreciation alone, from the dancers in the beginning of This Is It, who flew from as far as Australia to audition for the dates in London, say it all. The impact Jackson had on people of all walks of life, is a huge part of his legacy, and always will be.

“I am absolutely devastated at this tragic and unexpected news. For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don’t have the words. Divinity brought our souls together on The Wiz and allowed us to do what we were able to throughout the ’80s. To this day, the music we created together on Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad is played in every corner of the world and the reason for that is because he had it all…talent, grace, professionalism and dedication. He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I’ve lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him.” — Quincy Jones

- Olivia Taubner

RCA Victor LSP 4096  – United States - 1969

In honor of the release of Michael Jackson’s recent movie This Is It, I present to you Baby Be Mine.  It’s placement on the #1 selling album of all time (Thriller) many overlook it due to the 7 other classic singles on Thriller.  The Jheri Curl era is in full effect on this one, to me this is Mike’s hottest joint ever, don’t sleep enjoy.Baby Be Mine – Michael Jackson