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James Brown Revue

James Brown Revue image
Parent Issue
Day
6
Month
September
Year
1974
OCR Text

James Brown's career spans an impressive two decades in soul music. During these twenty years, he has maintained almost undisputed dominance in the highly competitive market, with an output immense and varied. Today, he is the Godfather of Soul, a name only he can bear. There is nobody in soul music today who has not been influenced, consciously or unconsciously, by James Brown. The title "Godfather" indicates the man's staying power, his heritage, and his age-he is currently in his forties, an age at which most entertainers of his energy are retired or resting on their laurels with watered-down revival tours. The last two years have shown a new peak in musical achievement for this giant of entertainment.

Cold facts on the James Brown story are hard to come by. The man's actual biography is clouded over by the James Brown Legend, a saga he has done his best to encourage. Born in Georgia, he started out as a cotton picker, then tried to make it briefly as a boxer. Then he turned to music, landing a longstanding contract with King Records in Cincinnati, Ohio with his first band, the Flames. During the late Fifties and early Sixties, Brown became King's number-one artist, rapidly eclipsing the company's other talent (mostly blues acts). The early singles ("Please, Please, Please," "Try Me," etc.) are straight ahead soul tunes, distinguished more by the energy of Brown's singing than by any outstanding musical innovations.

James Brown's legend is carved more on the basis of his live appearances than on his studio work. From very early in his career, he was playing to sold-out houses, creating near-riot situations all over the country. "HARD WORKING MR. DYNAMITE," "SOUL BROTHbR NUMBER ONE." and other names became synonymous with the James Brown charisma. Unlike Otis Redding James was unable until very recently to draw a substantial white audience. Although he had some twenty million selling singles before 1970, he never received a gold record because he was confined to the soul charts. Brown is one of the few black artists to have reached millionaire status without hitting a white market, where the "big money" is.

The mid-Sixties showed a peak in the James Brown phenomenon. A growing performance schedule had done some damage to the upper registers of his voice, but had done wonders for his band which assumed a much greater role in the Sixties. The great virtuoso of the band was James Brown's right-hand man, sax player Maceo Parker. He was a featured soloist in many of the singles ("Cold Sweat," "Popcorn") and struck out briefly on his own in the late Sixties with Maceo and All the King's Men. That band released an album, "Doing Their Own Thing," which ranks as one of the finest, funky R and B albums ever produced.

The James Brown singles of the Sixties have evolved out of the mainstream soul tune format into a much more elemental form: a groove contrasted by a bridge, the most basic form of tension and release. Brown's position became more that of a band leader than lead-singer-backed-up-by-band. The tunes got longer; many of the singles would feature part two on the flip side. Dismissed by those who didn't know any better as "monotonous, one-chord jams," these tunes were actually some of the more monstrous (yet subtle) grooves ever recorded. And on top of it all was the clear master of ceremonies: rhythmic, playful, commanding, inspiring James Brown. Behind the scenes, the story has it, he was also quite the tyrant, charging fifty-dollar fines for mistakes on the gig. This was James Brown and his band in rare form.

In 1970, James Brown left King Records for Polydor, and a brief slump ensued during the adjustment period. For the first time, he started using sophisticated recording techniques- a big change from the funky King sessions. This also required some adjustment. By 1972, a new James Brown band was emerging: the JB's, under the direction of trombone player Fred Wesley. (James Brown's band had actually been called the JB's for some five years now, but Fred Wesley had only recently served as a major influence.) Suddenly a new string of hits started coming, not only by James Brown, but by Fred Wesley and the JB's ("Doing It To Death," "Damn Right I Am Somebody"), Maceo Parker ("Parties," "Soul Power '74"), and singer Lyn Collins ("Mama Feel Good," "Give It Up Or Turn It Loose ). Maceo's return to the fold, with the status of a conquering hero, is probably James Brown's most impressive coup since the switch to Polydor.

The new James Brown comprises all of the old James Brown and then some. He is still the undisputed master of Rhythm & Blues, and Fred Wesley has brought some impressive jazz influences into the melting pot. Maceo's section of the current show is dazzling in its intensity, and he receives more than adequate support from Fred Wesley and the other fabulous horn players in the JB's. The two guitar players, with their trademarked interlocking parts, provide a crackling blanket for the massive horn section; and at the bottom with two bass players, the usually superb James Brown rhythm section. This is R and B at its greatest, and James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, is still soul-brother number one. 

-- Richard Lehfeldt & Rchard Dishman