This is a blog used to help promote DJ Kool Emdee and dedicated to GOOD music and those
who love good music, be it old or new school. Any music or links posted are for SAMPLE PURPOSES ONLY. We wish that you would support all artists by purchasing their bodies of work.
Charlie Musselwhite (born January 31, 1944 in Kosciusko, Mississippi) is an American blues-harp player and bandleader, one of the non-black bluesmen who came to prominence in the early 1960s, along with Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield. Musselwhite was reportedly the inspiration for Dan Aykroyd's Blues Brothers.
Musselwhite has released over 20 albums, as well as guesting on albums by many other musicians, such as Bonnie Raitt's Longing in Their Hearts and The Blind Boys of Alabama's Spirit of the Century, both winners of Grammy awards. He also appeared on Tom Waits' Mule Variations and INXS' Suicide Blonde. He himself has won 18 W. C. Handy Awards and six Grammy nominations, as well as Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Monterey Blues Festival and the San Javier Jazz Festival in San Javier, Spain, and the Mississippi Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts.
Ultimately, for Charlie Musselwhite the thrill and challenge of engaging an audience fuels his artistry. "It's about the feeling, and connecting with people," he explains, "And blues, if it's real blues, is loaded with feeling." Charlie continues that, "it ain't about technique either, it's about truth, connecting to the truth and communicating with people."
I don't watch a whole lot of TV because I only watch certain shows. It was brought to my attention that I missed a guy who had this song that has caught the attention of viewers all over the country. Usually I like to catch the American Idol auditions because I know someone is going to do something.....outrageous. In this case, there was a message that needed to be said on a nationally and internationally broadcast program. The ditty has grasped so much appeal, that I found out the NFL great Brett Farve even crooned the tune in the Vikings locker room. If you haven't caught wind (which I doubt), i'll sit back and let the GENERAL give you the message himself.
Taken from his official website:
General Larry Platt, a 63 year old civil rights pioneer and spearhead turned world famous artist from Atlanta, Georgia with the hit song "Pants On The Ground" from American Idol fame has taken the world by storm. Everyone from continent to continent has fallen completely in love with him and his message.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart born in Salzburg (which is now Austria), full baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791), was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers.
Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty; at 17 he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position, always composing abundantly. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and the Requiem. The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons.
Mozart learned voraciously from others, and developed a brilliance and maturity of style that encompassed the light and graceful along with the dark and passionate—the whole informed by a vision of humanity "redeemed through art, forgiven, and reconciled with nature and the absolute." His influence on subsequent Western art music is profound. Beethoven wrote his own early compositions in the shadow of Mozart.
Some of his most noted pieces includes "The Magic Flute", "Marriage of Figaro", "Idomeneo", "Don Giovanni", and a host of other operas, symphonies, and concertos.
Bobby "Blue" Bland
Robert Calvin Bland, born January 27, 1930 in Rosemark, Tennessee, better known as Bobby “Blue” Bland, is an American singer of blues and soul. He is an original member of The Beale Streeters and is sometimes referred to as the "Lion of the Blues". Along with such artists as Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, and Junior Parker, Bland developed a sound that mixed gospel with the blues and R&B.
Bobby Bland was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1981, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. You have also heard a few of his tunes sampled in Hip-Hop records.
Trip-Hop pioneer Tricky, born Adrian Nicholas M. Thaws on January 27,1968 in Knowle West, Bristol, England, is an English musician and actor. As a producer and a musician, he is noted for a dark, rich and layered sound and a whispering sprechgesang lyrical style. Culturally, Tricky encourages an intertwining of societies, particularly in his musical fusion of rock and hip hop, high art and pop culture. His debut album Maxinquaye [named after his mother] was nominated for the Mercury Prize and voted Album of the Year by NME Magazine.
Like many classic artists who make timeless music, Sade ranks amongst the best of them. When you continue to make quality music for the masses of fans, you are able to take a long hiatus and still have these same loyal fans on the edge of their seats when the word gets out about a new release. It's been nearly 10 years (wow...ten?) since her last release "Lovers Rock", and then an 8 year span between "Lovers Rock" and "Love Deluxe".
On February 9th, the wait will be over and we will again have a chance to listen to a full studio album release from our treasured Sade. For more info, log on to SADE.com. I also forgot to publish a post for her birthday on January 16th.
Happy birthday wishes going out to the following artists...
Alicia Keys (Jan.25,1981)
Keys was born Alicia Augello Cook on January 25, 1981, in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan, in New York City, New York. An accomplished pianist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, composer, author, and poet, Keys incorporates piano into a majority of her songs and often writes about love, heartbreak and female empowerment. She was inspired by several musicians, including Prince, Nina Simone, Barbra Streisand, Marvin Gaye, Quincy Jones, Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder. Keys' style is rooted in gospel and vintage soul music, supplemented by bass and programmed drumbeats. She heavily incorporates classical piano with R&B, soul and jazz into her music, but began experimenting with other genres, including pop and rock.
Keys' debut album, Songs in A Minor, was a commercial success, selling over 12 million copies worldwide. She became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B artist of 2001. The album earned Keys five Grammy Awards in 2002, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Fallin'". Her second studio album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, was released in 2003 and was also another success worldwide, selling eight million copies. The album garnered her an additional four Grammy Awards in 2005. Later that year, she released her first live album, Unplugged, which debuted at number one in the United States. She became the first female to have an MTV Unplugged album to debut at number one and the highest since Nirvana in 1994.
Keys made guest appearances on several television series in the following years. She made her film debut in Smokin' Aces and went on to appear in The Nanny Diaries in 2007. Her third studio album, As I Am, was released in the same year and sold six million copies worldwide, earning Keys an additional three Grammy Awards. The following year, she appeared in The Secret Life of Bees, which earned her a nomination at the NAACP Image Awards. She released her fourth album, The Element of Freedom, on December 15, 2009. Throughout her career, Keys has won numerous awards and has sold over 30 million albums worldwide, establishing herself as one of the best-selling artists of her time.
For more info on her and her philanthropy, log on to her site at AliciaKeys.com.
Anita Baker Jan.26,1958
Born in Toledo, Ohio, Anita Baker is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter. To date, Baker has won eight Grammy Awards, and has four platinum albums and two gold albums to her credit.
Eddie Van Halen Jan.26,1955
Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007 . Eddie Van Halen, an unrelenting seeker of electronic chorded sounds and tones and rhythms, is widely known for his innovative performing and recording styles in rapid guitar playing, tapping, and high frequency feedback; he is also known for energetic and acrobatic stage performances. The All Music Guide has called him "undoubtedly one of the most influential, original, and talented rock guitarists of the 20th century." One other notable performance by Eddie is on Michael Jackson's 1982 hit titled "Beat It", where he plays the lead guitar and solo on the tune. He was invited to play by Quincy Jones.
Etta James Jan.25,1938
Etta James (born Jamesetta Hawkins on January 25, 1938) is an American blues, soul, R&B, rock & roll, gospel and jazz singer and songwriter. James is the winner of four Grammys and seventeen Blues Music Awards. She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001, and the Grammy Hall of Fame in both 1999 and 2008. In the 1950s and 1960s, she had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer. She is best known for performing "At Last", which has been featured in movies, television shows, commercials, and web-streaming services. James has a contralto vocal range.
Aaron Neville Jan.24,1941
Aaron Neville (born January 24, 1941 in New Orleans, Louisiana) is an American soul and R&B singer. He made his debut in 1966 with the hit single "Tell It Like It Is", a Number One hit on the Billboard R&B charts. Neville did not chart again, however, until 1989, when he collaborated with Linda Ronstadt on three consecutive duets: "Don't Know Much", "All My Life", and "When Something Is Wrong with My Baby", of which the first two reached Number One on the Adult Contemporary charts. Neville has released more than 20 singles, including three Number Ones on the Adult Contemporary format, and a fourth on the R&B format. Aaron Neville has had a career as a solo artist and as one of The Neville Brothers. Of mixed African American and Native American heritage, his music also features Cajun and Creole influences.
Neil Diamond Jan.24,1941
Neil Leslie Diamond (born in Brooklyn, New York, New York), also known as the "Jewish Elvis", is one of America's most enduring and successful singer-songwriters. As a successful pop music performer, Diamond scored a number of hits worldwide in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. As of 2001 Diamond has 115 million records sold worldwide, including 48 million records in the U.S. In terms of Billboard chart success, he is the third most successful Adult Contemporary artist ever, ranking behind only Barbra Streisand and Elton John. Though his record sales declined somewhat after the 1980s, Diamond continues to tour successfully, and maintains a very loyal following. Diamond's songs have been recorded by a vast array of performers from many different musical genres. Diamond was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984, and in 2000 received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award.
Diamond starred in a remake of the Al Jolson classic The Jazz Singer in 1980, opposite Laurence Olivier and Lucie Arnaz. Though the movie was not a blockbuster hit at the box office, the soundtrack was a hugely successful album, spawning the 3 Top 10 singles "Love on the Rocks," "Hello Again," and "America." For his role in the film itself, Diamond became the first ever Winner of a Worst Actor Razzie Award, yet he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for the same role.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)
Today is the day when we pay respects, tribute, and say Happy Birthday to civil rights activist and leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Unlike most, I didn't plan to post the "I Have A Dream" speech. However, I wanted to post a different speech to show there were more sides and dimensions to a man who fought and gave his life for the sake of love for his fellow man. Here's the classic Stevie Wonder tribute song titled "Happy Birthday", and Roy Ayers' "Holiday (DJ Spinna Remix)". To learn more about him and his ideologies, read the several books that he's written and published. Visit MartinLutherKing.org for additional information.
I've been spinning Dubstep for about 4 years now, and am glad that it's finally gaining a bigger crowd here in the "H". However, it still has a pretty long way to go to get more of the masses to come out and support and make it as close to the UK scene. That day....I look forward to. Here's a mix I did last year with a good mix of some fierce tunes. Turn your speakers up and....FEEL THE BASS!
ENTER DI DUBSTEP 1. Intro 2. Formal Mutation - Poisoned Tears 3. SPL - Cobalt 4. Tes La Rok + Desto - Low 5. Dub + Rum - Terrorize 6. Skepta ft. Wiley - Are You Ready 7. Skream - Trapped In A Dark Bubble 8. Gun Jack - Ghetto Blasta 9. DVA ft. Badness Riko, Flowdan, & Killa P - Bullet A Go Fly (Dusk & Blackdown Remix) 10. Noah D + Roommate - Street Sound 11. Benga - One Million 12. Benny Page - Pan Pipes 13. DZ - My Moon, My Dub 14. Cringer - Gate B5 (Remix) 15. Kode9 - Black Sun 16. Benga - Technocal 17. Sclist - Darkroom (Phaeleh Dub Mix)
Mixed by DJ Kool Emdee for Blackadelic Tribe Productions
Here's the second instillation of my FREEBIE MIX series for my readers and supporters. This time it's more on a NuJazz & funky tip. ENJOY!
FREEBIE MIX II 1. Bugz In The Attic - Booty La La 2. Zero db vs Switch - A Bit Romba 3. Jazzanova - Mwela Mwela (B.I.T.A. Remix) 4. Domu - What's Your Number (Original Mix) 5. Chase & Status ft. Kano - Against All Odds 6. The Jackson 5 - Hum Along & Dance 7. Seelenluft - Manila 8. Fertile Ground - Take Me Higher (Waiwan Remix) 9. Silhouette Brown - Check It (Calling You) 10. DKD - Future Rage, Brighter Day 11. Flyamsam - The Offbeat 12. GForce & Seiji - Track Unknown 13. Boozoo Bajou ft. Willie Hutch - Treat Me
OK....I know i'm a day late, but the year is only two days old. I didn't post anything yesterday like I planned because I slept in pretty late...til about 5:30 pm. I hope most of you had a great time. My year end and first couple of hours of the new year started and ended pretty horrible. So now it's time for me to continue to shake off all this negative energy and get things going in a more positive direction. CHEERS!
