In September 1978, soul producer extraordinaire Kenneth Gamble helped launch the Black Music Association, an advocacy group set on pushing the music industry to “recognize and celebrate the economic and cultural power of black music as well as those who made and promoted it.” “It was time for something new …
Read More »
At some point in the middle of this decade, the brooding, atmospheric, synthetic R&B pioneered by Toronto artists like Drake and The Weeknd reached a saturation point. One artist who helped break this Canadian fever was Daniel Caesar. His 2017 debut album, Freudian, was a breath of fresh air, a …
Read More »
The night before most singers put out an album, tradition dictates that they spend some time promoting their new work. Music is a business, after all, and listeners can’t stream or buy your songs if they don’t know that those songs exist. It would be generous to say that the …
Read More »
The legendary arranger-writer-producer Quincy Jones has an extensive arsenal of go-to aphorisms. One concerns the difficult business of matching the right tune to the right singer. “The song is the power,” Jones told Rolling Stone last year. “A great song can make the worst singer in the world a star. …
Read More »