Some heady music theory here! Fascinating breakdown of this groundbreaking work of art and science. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62tIvfP9A2w...
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SISTER FROM ANOTHER PLANET
Photograph by Art Streiber / AUGUST The music legend on the secret Michael Jackson, his relationship with the Trumps, and the problem with modern pop. by David Marchese | Vulture In both music and manner, Quincy Jones has always registered — from afar, anyway — as smooth, sophisticated, and impeccably well-connected. (That’s what earning 28 Grammy awards and co-producing Michael Jackson’s biggest-selling albums will do.) But in person, the 84-year-old music-industry macher is far spikier and more complicated. “All I’ve ever done is tell the truth,”...
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Photograph by Eric Helgas for The New Yorker An under-sung artist upends received ideas about race and history. by Vinson Cunningham | The New Yorker Biggers’s art, layered with references to race and history, is sincere and ironic at once. Audio: Listen to this story. Three years ago, on a Saturday in spring, I wandered into a humid gallery just south of Canal Street. On display was a group exhibition called “Black Eye,” which included works by an impressive roster of established and emerging artists—Kehinde Wiley,...
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by Terrence Sage* | AfroPunk The following is a list of comics either ongoing or releasing this year. It is focused on either Black creative teams penning the adventures of superheroes, or comics that star Black superheroes in a prominent light! 1. Black Lightning: Cold Dead Hands (DC Comics) = Writer: Tony Isabella, Artist: Clayton Henry, Colorist: Pete Pantazis, Letterer: Josh Reed Black Lightning aka Jefferson Pierce returns to the spotlight in a six-issue miniseries that gives Cleveland a hero to cheer for. During the day, Jefferson is...
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by Paul Brad | Ancient to Future STRAIGHT NO CHASER: From World Jazz Jive to Interplanetary Sounds : Ancient To Future – 1988 – 2009 For nigh on two decades Straight No Chaser magazine went around the globe reflecting the musical pre-occupations of a devoted readership which included musicians , DJs, crate diggers, music junkies, artists and designers and those people who just wanted that bit more. Conceived as a magazine of “world Jazz Jive” that was attuned to the “Freedom Principle”, Straight...
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Getty This Unreleased Demo of 'Let's Dance' Might Be More Timeless Than the Album Version; Hear the recently released track with Nile Rodgers. by Matt Miller | Esquire When David Bowie first played an early version of "Let's Dance" for Nile Rodgers in 1982, the Chic guitarist was not impressed. "I come from dance music," Rodgers told Bowie at the time. "You can't call that thing you just played 'Let's Dance.'" So Rodgers tinkered with the structure and the chords and turned the song into one of...
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Credit: Jackie Ferrentino (On my shortlist.) by David Sax | The NY Times A decade ago I bought my first smartphone, a clunky little BlackBerry 8830 that came in a sleek black leather sheath. I loved that phone. I loved the way it effortlessly slid in and out of its case, loved the soft purr it emitted when an email came in, loved the silent whoosh of its trackball as I played Brick Breaker on the subway and the feel of its baby keys...
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Carrie Mae Weems in her library. Photo: David Paul Broda by Jo Steffens | The Paris Review The following is excerpted from Unpacking My Library: Artists and Their Books, a collection of interviews with contemporary artists about their personal libraries, to be published by Yale University Press in November. INTERVIEWER Your photographic work incorporates family stories, autobiography, documentary, and other narrative forms. What do you consider to be your role as a storyteller? CARRIE MAE WEEMS In the past I’ve employed elements of text in and around my work,...
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LORNA SIMPSON IN BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, JULY 2016. PHOTOS: VICTORIA STEVENS. HAIR: EDRIS FOR EDRIS SALON. MAKEUP: AMENAWON GREEN FOR SGRAYUNLIMITED THE AGENCY. (Another one of the groundbreaking artists in my life; we were in the same class together at Art & Design HS. She was always a star. <3) by William J. Simmons | INTERVIEW This summer, during group shows and ahead of fall exhibition openings, we’re visiting New York-based artists in their studios. Lorna Simpson has been at the forefront of conceptual art for over...
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by Macenzie Wagoner | VOGUE Imagine the kind of confidence it requires to sing, “I’m every woman, it’s all in me” and mean it. On a winter evening in Los Angeles, Chaka Khan is the embodiment of that feminine power. Upon her arrival at the Chateau Marmont, she apologizes for her cold, though over the course of the night, her lightning-quick wit and undeniable star quality—best exemplified by the dramatic deployment of a handheld fan between dustings of vibrant crimson blush along...
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"The things that our society has created to hold me back don't exist in the water." by Elite Daily https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9jKErn8KBk...
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Sia before the intrigue and wigs. The slammin' back up singers are so chill and really feelin' the groove...
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Getty Images/Ringer Illustration One of the greatest living artists in popular music still isn’t properly recognized. Joni transcends gender, genre and time. Here’s why. by Lindsay Zoladz | The Ringer In one of the golden, waning years of the 1960s, Chuck Mitchell told his young wife to read Saul Bellow’s novel Henderson the Rain King. It was not a gesture of marital kindness so much as a power move: Chuck was older and more educated than Joan, and to her ears, his book recommendations always...
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by Kaleigh Fasanella | Allure Miss Jamaica, Davina Bennett may have been the second runner-up at this year's Miss Universe pageant, but she might as well have taken home the first place win if Twitter has anything to say about it. And, oh, do they ever. Shortly after walking onto the stage with her short Afro, Twitter was abuzz with myriad complimentary comments including, "All of that natural hair, melanated black girl magic!! 😍 ," and "MISS JAMAICA’S AFRO IS GIVING ME ALL TYPES...
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This Black Woman Made A Video Game After People Kept Touching Her Hair by Khalea Underwood | Refinery 29 When someone touches your hair without permission, feels happen — and not just the physical kind. It's uncomfortable. Unwarranted. Rude. Weird. Demeaning. Scary. It's easy for people to ask "what's the big deal" about the whole ordeal when they haven't experienced it themselves...
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Photo: Obi Grant by Veronica Hilbring | Essence For the first time in its history, Nigeria will compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and it’s all thanks to the women’s bobsled team. Led by driver Seun Adigun and her teammates — Ngozi Onwumere and Akuoma Omeoga — the bobsled team qualified in Canada after completing the fifth of the required five races. The team is the first African team to qualify in the bobsled category. Seun Adigun told Kwesé ESPN, “This is a huge milestone...
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“We were all about being very silly at Club 57,” Min Sanchez, one of the regulars, said recently. ALDEN PROJECTS (One of my favorite haunts. And yes, rents were under $200 a month in those days.) by Brett Sokol | NY Times Club 57, Late-Night Home of Basquiat and Haring Gets a Museum-Worthy Revival. Kenny Scharf is one of the artists whose early work is being featured in “Club 57: Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978–1983,” at the Museum of Modern...
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This April 24, 1953 file photo shows people dancing at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom, in New York. (AP Photo/Hans von Nolde, File) Associated Press/NY Daily News 10/31/17 | NEW YORK (AP) — Cut loose! New York City lawmakers voted Tuesday to legalize dancing in bars, repealing a 91-year-old law that banned boogieing at most city nightspots. The anti-dancing law was first enacted in 1926 and prohibited dancing in bars and restaurants that don't have a cabaret license. Critics said the so-called cabaret law originated as...
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Gamin’ on ya! Bootsy Collins. Photograph: Alias Imaging/Michael Weintrob by Candice Pires | The Guardian The musician, 66, on free love, Funkadelic, coming to earthly consciousness and getting away from being Bootsy My mother never said to me: “You can’t do that.” When it came to finishing high school or going on the road with James Brown, I decided to go. She knew I wasn’t really choosing anything harmful. She just wanted me to have fun with whatever I was doing. She was my backbone. You...
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