Save the Date!
After a full house at South in Philly, Dr. Guy’s MusiQology makes its anticipated return to New York City’s legendary Blue Note on May 16. The group held acclaimed, sold-out shows there each of the last two years (covered extensively by MusiQology.com HERE, HERE, and HERE) with special guests abounding and a strong sense of musical community in the room. We’ll have more extensive coverage of the shows, but for now, mark your calendars.
Call the Doctor (Funkenstein)
While George Clinton’s Parliament/Funkadelic sound was defined by the guitars of Garry Shider and Eddie Hazel and the bass of Bootsy Collins, there simply would be no Mothership Connection without keyboardist Bernie Worrell, whose iconic riffs on “Flashlight,” “Up for the Down Stroke,” and other funk classics. Worrell, now 71, is battling cancer, and a group of musicians united t Monday at Webster Hall for All the WOO in the World: An All-Star Celebration of Bernie Worrell, a “funkraiser” to raise money for the Bernie Worrell Fund. The list of guests speaks to Worrell’s impact—other than the obvious participants like Clinton and Collins, Living Colour, Rick Springfield, Jonathan Demme, and—yes—Meryl Streep will will be on hand. If you’d like to contribute to fundraising for Worrell, you can do so HERE.
Rocking Out
BET will broadcast the awards show for Black Girls Rock! this evening. The organization, which celebrates its 10th year in 2016, celebrates empowerment initiatives and artistic and humanitarian work by women of color while providing mentorship opportunities and community support for young girls. This year’s program is an all-star collection of women, including Rihanna, Shonda Rhimes, and Gladys Knight, but we’d like to give a special shout-out to Imani Uzuri, a friend of the site who is featured in a special tribute performance. “Black women are occupying spaces that we didn’t before, and celebrating ourselves unapologetically,”organization founder Beverly Bond told The New York Times. “To see all of our humanitarian contributions not being recognized or celebrated didn’t sit well with me.”
Black (Panther) Power
Ta-Nehisi Coates’s anticipated Black Panther comic book will debut this week, with digital and physical editions set to hit stores Wednesday. First appearing in a Marvel comic in 1966, T’Challa, the Black Panther, is an African superhero king of Wakanda, the world’s most technically advanced nation. With the addition of the Black Panther to the Marvel movie universe with an upcoming film by Ryan Coogler (with Chadwick Boseman in the title role), now is the perfect time to return to the character’s complicated place in the Marvel universe, and Coates is the perfect storyteller to deliver it. “The highlight of Coates’s writing in Black Panther isn’t the way he skillfully laces the comic with broader political themes about power (though he’s very good at that),” an early review in Vox suggests. “Instead, it’s his ability to give the book’s intimate character relationships a sense of humanity and dignity.” See more HERE.
Where He’s From
NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts have always been a great place to get to the essence of an artist’s sound (see Pain, T- for perhaps the best example), and this week’s concert featuring soul singer Anthony Hamilton among the musical paraphernalia is no exception. Hot off the heels of What I’m Feelin’, his first release in years, Hamilton and the HamilTones are confident running through minimalist takes on songs new and old; his clear, pristine voice is well-suited to the format, and the entire performance is worth a watch (maybe alone with someone special).
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