I woke up yesterday morning with a nagging urge to hear some Eddie Kendricks. You could say I had a scratch only Eddie’s smooth tenor could itch. After running through some of my favorites — “Date With the Rain,” “Girl You Need a Change of Mind,” “Keep on Truckin,” “My People Hold On” — I found myself on his Wikipedia page. Turns out it was the anniversary of the Temptations great’s death, one day removed: he succumbed to lung cancer 17 years earlier, on Oct. 5, 1992.

NBC’s Temptations miniseries from 1998 was pretty good considering it was made for primetime network TV, but I don’t like how Eddie’s character was left undeveloped. I know the film was based on Otis Williams’ autobiography and all, but Eddie had the most successful solo career of any Temptations member. Read the rest of this entry »

50 Cent is a remarkable specimen. He simultaneously embodies everything that’s wrong and everything that’s right with hip-hop at the same time. I look at 50 like a frustrating old friend who you thought you were done with ’cause he was never a good, reliable or even likable friend but, after you ignore him for a while, you feel like hanging out with him again ’cause he’s more fun to be around and easier to relate to than the seemingly cooler yet actually boring, surface-oriented people you’re currently stuck hanging around with. Read the rest of this entry »

The least flattering pic I could find of this guy

Ladies, I had a brief, interference-addled phone conversation with Maxwell two weeks ago. The fruits of that interview were used to write this piece in this week’s Time Out.

BLACKsummers’night is streaming here. Musically, he’s on more of a Marvin than a Sade vibe this time.

Friday night, I took Simone to the historic NYC jazz club Birdland (my first time there) to see Bobby Caldwell. Like many from my generation, my introduction to Caldwell’s music comes through hip-hop, namely 2Pac, Biggie and Common/Dilla’s use of his “What You Won’t Do For Love,” “My Flame” and “Open Your Eyes” on “Do For Love”, “Sky’s the Limit” and “The Light,” respectively. Now, when artists on the caliber of ‘Pac, Biggie and (old) Common (not to mention Aaliyah, who interpolated “What You Won’t Do For Love” on her breakthrough “Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number”) have built some of their best songs from one artist’s oeuvre, then there must be something there. And I’ve found that Caldwell was pretty reliable in that early ’80s period—truly one of the finest exponents of blue-eyed soul, and the sort of mid-tempo R&B with jazz flourishes most commonly associated with George Benson.

I can’t say I knew too much about Bobby, or thought of checking him live, before last week. It was close to Valentine’s Day, and he’s got a couple songs Simone and I really like, so I copped the tix. We were in for a surprise. Instead of his hits (though he trotted out a bossa nova version of “What You Won’t Do For Love” near the end), he would be performing standards—stuff like “Come Fly With Me” and “Luck Be a Lady” with a 16-piece big band. Indulging his inner Sinatra, basically. I had a great time, though (thanks, in part, to some Oban on the rocks). Caldwell has the soul of a Rat Packer, and his amateur comedy was actually kind of funny—to me, at least (he also spoke on how, on his first tours, the all-black crowds often felt “duped” when confronted with his whiteness; TK Records had sought to hide this fact, portraying him only in silhouette on early record covers and ads). In honor of that nice Friday night, I’d like to shed some light on some of Bobby’s lesser known jams: Read the rest of this entry »