Welcome to Women’s History Month, 2022! In the general hysteria of the moment I thought we could use some smooth, sassy, jazzy ladies of the transition period from Jazz, Blues into Soul from the mid 50’s into the mid 60’s to calm our nerves. The interesting thing to note is although the bulk of these…
Tag: Leslie Uggams
To The Lady In The Spotlight – A Midsummer’s Nightingale Playlist
There’s a long tradition in vocal stylings in which people aspire to being as great in a field as their predecessors. Notably, years of women that birth’d Jazz loved those Blues and Gospel singers that gave them the extra edge over some people that weren’t exactly naturals to the style. Some of those Jazz singers…
What’s Your Sign, Baby? 25 Tunes To Study Your Charts To
Once upon a time, about 15 years ago, a particular Sagittarius Sun, Scorpio Moon gifted me a massive Astrology Book for my 22nd Birthday. Realistically he used it as a passive aggressive gift to explain and excuse his horrible behaviors since, well, he “couldn’t help it, it was written in the stars!” Realistically it wasn’t…
That Seventies Show – Vol. 2: A Superfly Sequel Of Lady Soul From The Decade Of Me
About 18 months ago, I ventured out of the avenues of my typical fawning over 1960’s R&B and dropped the electronic needle on a bunch of 1970’s shadow classics. The 1970’s was also the first real era of the sequel blockbuster, so like any other producer, one looks at the returns of former successes and…
Queen Bee of The Brill: Ellie Greenwich and 35 of her cha-cha-charms
In general, the creators of popular music rarely get the credit that they deserve. Although we all have dozens of tunes that we (un)controllably hum in our heads due to the genius of composers forever having something memorable tunewise to offer, we oft deride such content as fluff. When you’re one of the rare women…
Heaven Must Have Sent You: Your Holland-Dozier-Holland History Lesson
I’ve been prone to these songwriter series playlists moreso. This time we make a visit to our first team. While Burt Bacharach’s mix featured him not exclusively tethered to Hal David, and Sylvia Moy found herself working with a round robin of partners, this one solely focuses on Holland-Dozier-Holland. Brothers Eddie and Brian Holland and…
So You Wanna Be Dionne Warwick? 30 Tribute Tunes To The Titan Of Sophisticated Soul
The influence of Dionne Warwick is one of the most underappreciated in 1960’s Soul Music. Her smooth, sophisticated work on Scepter Records, especially with Burt Bacharach and Hal David showed a mature, nuanced and complex way that many soul stars imitated. Coast to Coast after she flew in on the spaceship that was “Don’t Make…
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