A new exhibit at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit honors the legacy of legendary songstress Aretha Franklin.
TRYON, N.C. (AP) — The dilapidated wooden cottage in North Carolina that was the birthplace of singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone now has the protection of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The trust said in a news release Tuesday that it will develop and find a new use for the house in […]
CHICAGO (AP) — Yvonne Staples, (pictured, far right) whose voice and business acumen powered the success of the Staple Singers, has died at age 80. The Chicago funeral home Leak and Sons says she died Tuesday at her home in Chicago. Staples’ family gospel group had a string of Top 40 hits in the late 1960s, […]
Love, peace and soul was the ‘Soul Train’ mantra and writer Nelson George has put all of the above into his new book, Soul Train: The Hippest Trip In America. George, a cultural critic who’s written over 15 books, says that he wrote the book to tell the accurate story of the show’s history as […]
When it comes to funk, as illustrated in the new VH1 documentary Finding the Funk airing again on VH1 in March, there are several groups that are well-known. There is Parliament Funkadelic, Sly Stone and Slave as well as current folks like Janelle Monae and others who’ve taken up the mantle. But without the Bar-Kays, […]
President Obama may be struggling with his approval ratings this year, but Beyonce sure isn’t. She dropped a “visual album” on the public last Thursday (an hour after Scandal’s winter finale went off) and the world lost their collective minds. There were more blog posts, tweets, comments, debates and folks lined up to hate or […]
Aretha Franklin is back, in good health and ready to rock and roll. After recovering from an undisclosed illness, The Queen of Soul returns to performing at the Motor City Casino in Detroit on December 21st and at Radio City Music Hall on January 17 and 18th and she wants her fans to know she’s […]
Charlie Wilson will be on board the Fantastic Voyage 2014 and that’s good news for music fans. He took some good-natured ribbing from the TJMS team this morning, with the crew joking about how he performs in three cities a day, and with J. Anthony Brown saying he was so good he opens for himself. […]
For IPAD/IPOD users: The 90’s group TLC weathered its fair share of drama – everything from Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes torching her NFL boyfriend’s mansion to the group’s bankruptcy and subsequent fallout with manager Pebbles even while selling millions of records. And then, of course, Lopes’ untimely death in 2002 at the age of 30 […]
It will for sure be a fantastic voyage next year. George Clinton, the grandmaster of funk, will join Tom, Sybil and Jay on the 2014 Fantastic Voyage taking place onboard the Carnival Conquest March 16-24th. He may not look like the old George Ciinton, but the funk is still alive. Ciinton’s longtime style look of […]
Motown founder Berry Gordy has received a lot of accolades in his lengthy career, as well as the satisfaction of seeing a business he started from the ground up become the music of a generation. Now, Gordy is celebrating a great achievement once again as “Motown: The Musical” continues its successful Broadway run. The show […]
