R&B & Soul Album Playlist

Following the lead of young Angela, the creator of a Five Year Crash Course in Music, I made a list of (take a deep breath) the 30 best R&B & Soul albums from 1952 to 1993. I hasten to add that any such list is arbitrary and leaves a lot out, but I wanted to give myself, and possibly you, a crash course in pop music history, focusing on one genre.

Again following the lead of Ang, I consulted the Rolling Stone Magazine list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. There, after eliminating all the rock, I was left with a list of about 45 albums containing many by Stevie Wonder, quite a few by James Brown, just about all that Otis Redding ever made, and some others. While I agree about Otis Redding, I only wanted to sample one album, hopefully the best, by each artist. So putting together the Rolling Stone list with the genre lists at Allmusic, I came up with my own R&B & Soul Album Playlist. I wound up with 29 artists, so to round the list off to 30 I added Wilson Pickett because I like him. (PS: I hope you click on the links above, especially the Allmusic, one which is crammed with information.)

Here is the list, in rough chronological order:

Ray Charles (genre) (Soul) (album) The Birth of Soul

Fats Domino (New Orleans/R&B) Walking to New Orleans

Etta James (R&B) At Last

Jackie Wilson (Chicago Soul) Mr. Excitement

Sam Cooke (Soul) Live at the Harlem Square Club 1963

The Drifters (Soul) Under the Boardwalk

James Brown (Soul/Funk) Live at the Apollo 1963

Smokey Robinson (Soul/Motown) Going to a GoGo

The Supremes (Soul/Motown) Where Did Our love Go?

The Temptations (Soul/Motown) The Temptin' Temptations

Aretha Franklin (Soul/Urban) I Never Loved a Man Like I Love You

Dr. John (R&B/New Orleans) GrisGris

Otis Redding (Soul/Southern) Otis Blue

Sly & the Family Stone (Funk) Fresh

Ike & Tina Turner (Funk/Soul) Proud Mary: The Best of Ike & Tina Turner

Lou Rawls (Soul/Philly) The Best of Lou Rawls

Marvin Gaye (Soul/Motown) What's Going On?

Wilson Pickett (Soul/Southern) The Exciting Wilson Pickett

Stevie Wonder (Soul/Funk/Motown) Innervisions

Al Greene (Soul) Greatest Hits

Curtis Mayfield (Chicago Soul/Funk) Superfly

Earth, Wind and Fire (Funk/Soul/Urban) Gratitude

Gladys Knight (Soul/Motown/Urban) Imagination

Michael Jackson (Motown/Urban) Off the Wall

Funkadelic (R&b/Funk) One Nation Under a Groove

Whitney Houston (R&B) Whitney Houston

Janet Jackson (R&B) Rhythm Nation 1814

Mary J. Blige (R&B/Urban) My Life

D'Angelo (Soul/Neo-Soul) Brown Sugar

Toni Braxton (Contemp. R&B) Toni Braxton

Please let me know if I've left off anyone important, or if you have an alternate album choice. It was Ang's 60s list headed by Aretha Franklin that set me off on this soulful path. I've listened to her album, but I think I'll come back to it, since I want to start at the top chronologically. I'll listen to and comment on at least some of the albums and artists, and discuss the genre definitions along the way. On to Ray Charles then.

I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving.

We interupt R&B...

...to bring you news from another part of the music world. This week the Country Music Association (CMA) passed out awards during its annual showcase which was televised on Veterans Day, November 11.

Here are this year's winners:

Entertainer of the Year: Taylor Swift (of course)

Song of the Year: "In Color" (Jamey Johnson, Lee Thomas Miller, James Otto)

Single of the Year" "I Run to You" (Lady Antebellum)

Album of the Year: Fearless (Taylor Swift)

Male Vocalist of the Year: Brad Paisley

Female Vocalist of the Year: Taylor Swift

Vocal Duo of the Year: Sugarland

Vocal Group of the Year: Lady Antebellum

Musician of the Year: Mac McAnally

New Artist of the Year: Darius Rucker

Music Video of the Year: Love Story (Taylor Swift)

Here are some You Tube links:

Taylor Swift, Love Story
Lady Antebellum, I Run to You
Jamey Johnson with Keith Urban, In Color Don't miss this one.
Sugarland, Keep You Another great performance. What a voice!
Darius Rucker on Letterman Formerly of Hootie and the Blowfish

Best Of Lists and a Jazz Offering

A Five Year Crash Course in Music

Recently, I discovered a great idea while searching for musical ideas and news on line. A young British woman named Ang (short for Angela) is compiling lists of the 52 best pop music albums of every decade starting with the 60s. She proposes to listen to one album each week and post video and written reviews when she has digested the music by listening to the album at least five times. Here is a link to her blog in the section where she explains how she selected her album candidates. You can click through to see her lists for the 60s and 70s and the reviews she has posted so far. You can also follow her on Facebook.

So far Ang has posted her 60s and 70s list. Rather than her reviews, I am most interested in her selections. I am very tempted to follow her idea and listen to all of the top albums. In fact I started the process by listening to the first selection on Ang's 60s list: Aretha Franklin's I Never Loved a Man The Way I Love You, her first album on the Atlantic label.

In hearing Aretha at her best, I got interested in the definition and evolution of R&B and Soul music, a genre that I know little about except for what everyone hears on the radio. I am toying with idea of going through Ang's selections in this genre and perhaps researching some selections of my own. In any case, you will be hearing more about Aretha Franklin and this seminal album that began her rise to become Queen of Soul and one of the biggest music stars of all time.

Jazz on a Summer's Day

Meanwhile, join us in the large meeting room on the first floor of the library for a unique experience. On Saturday, November 21 at 2:00 PM we will be showing Jazz on a Summer's Day, a day in the life of the Newport Jazz festival of 1958. This is a true work of visual and musical art which mixes scenes of an idyllic summer on the water with jazz performances from the festival. This film captures a lost America and presents classic performers like Anita O'Day and Louis Armstrong in their prime. This ends our jazz offerings for a while (Fall is for jazz), so don't miss this large screen showing.