BLACK MUSIC CULTURAL CHANNEL

BMCC #7 Sly & the Famiky Stone - Live at North Sea Jazz 2007 Date & location: SUNDAY 15 JULY 2007 • NILE • Ahoy Hall - Rotterdam - The Netherlands Setlist: 1. Dance to the Music 2. Everyday People 3. Hot Fun in the Summertime 4. You're the One (Little Sister song) 5. Somebody's Watching You 6. Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey 7 Stand! 8. If You Want Me to Stay 9. Sing a Simple Song 10. I Want to Take You Higher 11. Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)

BMCC # 6 MOTOWN RETURNS TO THE APOLLO Dancers whirled down the aisles of the newly renovated Apollo Theater shortly after 8 P.M. yesterday. It was ''Motown Returns to the Apollo,'' a three-hour television special taped by NBC for airing on May 19, with 60 entertainers representing a wide spectrum of pop, soul and jazz talent over the last 50 years. The taping was one of several events yesterday that launched the 50th anniversary and grand reopening of the theater that was one of the birthplaces of rock-and-roll and soul. The taping was followed by a post-concert dinner-dance to benefit the Africare-Ethiopian Famine Relief Fund. ''Entertainment was what the Apollo was always about and what it is still about,'' proclaimed Bill Cosby, the evening's master of ceremonies. Since Jan. 26, 1934, when black entertainers and audiences first streamed into the converted burlesque house, the Apollo's marquee has boasted such names as Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Nat (King) Cole, and the theater, often known as ''the big top,'' gained an international reputation as a performance center for top black musicians.

DEVELOPING STORY! R&B Singer Jean Knight “Mr.Big Stuff” passed at the age 80! Jean Knight (née Caliste; January 26, 1943 - November 22, 2023) was an American R&B and soul singer from New Orleans, Louisiana. Launching her professional career in the mid-1960s, Knight was perhaps best known for her 1971 hit single, “Mr. Big Stuff” released by Stax Records. #JeanKnight #StaxRecords #vansilk1127

THE CHI-LITES “OHH GIRL”. 1972 Oh Girl” was the Chi-Lites’ first and only No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at that position in May 1972 for one week. The single also reached the top position of the Billboard R&B Singles chart the following month, remaining in that position for two weeks. Billboard ranked it as the No. 13 song for 1972. In addition, it reached No. 14 on the UK Singles Chart in July 1972, and was a UK hit again in 1975 when reissued as a double A-side with “Have You Seen Her”, this time reaching a new peak of No. 5. #theChilites #Vansilk1127

JAMES BROWN THE BIG PAYBACK The Payback is the 37th studio album by American musician James Brown. The album was released in December 1973, by Polydor Records. It was originally scheduled to become the soundtrack for the blaxploitation film Hell Up in Harlem, but was rejected by the film’s producers, who dismissed it as “the same old James Brown stuff.” A widely repeated story—including by Brown himself—that director Larry Cohen rejected the music as “not funky enough” is denied by Cohen. On the DVD commentary track for Black Caesar (to which Hell Up in Harlem is a sequel), Cohen states that executives at American International Pictures were already unhappy with Brown for delivering songs much longer than expected on Black Caesar and Slaughter’s Big Rip-Off and opted for a deal with Motown Records instead. Cohen said the absence of Brown’s music from Harlem still “breaks [his] heart.” #JamesBrown #BobbyByrd #Vansilk1127

FATS DOMINIO “BLUE MONDAY” (1957) Blue Monday” is a song originally, written by Dave Bartholomew,first recorded in 1953 by Smiley Lewis and issued as a single, in January 1954, on Imperial Records (catalog # 5268) The single, with a slow-rocking beat, features an instrumental electric guitar solo by Lewis. It was later popularized in a recording by Fats Domino in 1956, also on Imperial (catalog # 5417), on which the songwriting credit was shared between him and Bartholomew. Most later versions have credited Bartholomew and Domino as co-writers. The baritone saxophone solo is by Herbert Hardesty Domino's version was featured in the 1956 film The Girl Can't Help It. It became one of the earliest rhythm and blues songs to make the Billboard charts, peaking at number five and reaching the number one spot on the R&B Best Sellers chart.The single reached number 23 on the UK Singles Chart[8] It was included on the 1957 Liberty album #fatsdomino #Vansilk1127

JIMMY BRISCOE & THE LITTLE BEAVERS In the 1970s, when The Jackson 5’s popularity gave rise to many other teenage groups, five young men from Baltimore, Maryland were discovered at a talent show in Baltimore by music promoter Paul Kyser. They recorded a number of singles, starting with Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers’ “Why Do Fools Fall in Love”, backed with “Sugar Brown”, in 1971 on Atlantic Records and then for the Pi Kappa label distributed by Buddah Records as one of its subsidiary/affiliated labels. Their album My Ebony Princess, released by Pi Kappa in 1974, was reviewed as a “top album pick” by Billboard magazine; the title cut gave them their greatest success. The group’s vocal harmony set them apart from the other groups, though lack of distribution left them relatively unknown to the public. Other releases included “Where Were You (When I Needed You)”, “I Only Feel This Way When I’m With You”, “I’ll Care For You”, and “So Sweet The Love”. The group’s original lineup was Milton W Faulkner jr., Jimmy Briscoe, Stanford Stansbury, Kevin Barnes, Maurice Pulley, and Robert Makins. Bobby Finch replaced Makins in 1977 and the group dropped the “Little” from its name. After attempting to change their style with several disco-oriented releases on a number of other labels and finding only minor success, the group disbanded. #jimmybriscoeandthelittlebeavers #Vansilk1127