The people’s choice Kendrick Lamar has finally gotten his
just due. On April 16, 2018 he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in music for
his album “DAMN,” for “distinguished musical composition.” This is the first
Pulitzer awarded in music for a non-classical, non-jazz album. At the 2018
Grammy Awards, Lamar was beaten out in several categories where he arguably
should have won. Inexplicably, the Grammys limited Lamar to the rap category.
Maybe next year they will do better.
Congratulations to Lamar for his
outstanding achievements, including a Generational Icon Award, the key to the
city of Compton, for making the Rolling Stones list of the top 100 debut albums
of all times, and the numerous Grammys he has won to date in various rap
categories.
Yvonne
Staples of the iconic Staple Singers, hitmakers of the 1970s, has died
on April 10, 2018 of colon cancer. Ms. Staples was 80 years of age. She
was the business manager of the group, and a background singer since 1971. The
gospel inspired Staple Singers consisted of Pops, Cleotha, Pervis, and Mavis,
the lead. The group crossed over into soul music in 1971, and had a string of
hits including “Respect Yourself” (1971), “I’ll Take You There” (1972), and “If
You’re Ready (Come Go with Me)” (1973). Yvonne sang background for Mavis during
Mavis’s solo career in the 1980s.
In 1999, the Staple Singers were
inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. They received a lifetime
achievement award at the 2005 Grammy Awards.
Most likely, all of the fans did not
really know Yvonne during the group’s heyday, but on all of the songs we loved,
Yvonne was there. Since the 1970s was my favorite decade, I have to repeat their
famous musical request, “Let’s Do it Again” (1975).
Rapper Craig Mack passed away on March 12, 2018 of heart failure, at
the age of 46. He was born on May 10, 1971 in Trenton, New Jersey.
Craig began writing his own raps at
the age of 12. He started his career in 1988, under the name MC EZ, but gained
fame in 1994 with “Flava in Ya Ear,” which can be heard on television
commercials to this day. The song was nominated for best rap solo, but
unfortunately did not win.
After a couple of unsuccessful
albums, he moved on to “Christian rap” and recorded a video in this genre which
was posted on YouTube in 2016. A compilation of songs recorded by Mack between
2002 and 2006 was released in 2017, entitled “Mack World Sessions.” Neither
these endeavors nor a mixtape released in 2012 matched the success of “Flava.”
Mr. Mack is survived by a wife
and two adult children. He is known as one of the pioneers of rap, and will be
remembered fondly as such.
Superstar Dennis Edwards, formerly of the Temptations, died on
February 2, 2018, one day prior to his 75th birthday. He had
been suffering from an undisclosed illness.
Dennis began singing in his father’s
church choir in Fairfield, AL at the age of 2. The family moved to Detroit, MI
when Dennis was 10, and he eventually became choir director. As a teen, he
joined the Mighty Clouds of Joy, and his family discouraged him from listening
to and singing secular music. Nevertheless, in 1966, he was signed to Motown
and joined The Contours. In 1968, he replaced his friend David Ruffin in The
Temptations. He was on and off a part of the group through the 1980s.
Edwards sang lead on such
Temptations classics as “Cloud Nine” (1968) and “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”
(1969), both of which won Grammy Awards. Edwards’s solo career included the
1984 hit “Don’t Look Any Further.” After his final departure from The
Temptations, he toured with Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin, and he ultimately
joined a Temptations Review, performing old Temptations hits.
As a member of The Temptations, Edwards
was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. Edwards is definitely
a big part of our beloved musical history.
Garry
“Starchild” Shider, the longtime musical director of
Parliament-Funkadelic whose funky guitar work, songwriting skills, and musical
arrangements thrilled fans around the globe and earned him a spot in the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame, died from lung and brain cancer at age 56 on June 16,
2010. He co-wrote such songs as “One Nation Under a Groove” and “Atomic Dog.”
Due to his crossing over, an era has come to a close.
Hugh Masekela, the South
African trumpeter who became famous in the U.S. in 1968 with his rendition of “Grazing
in the Grass,” died on January 23, 2018 of prostate cancer. He was 78
years of age.
Masekela was born in South Africa on
April 4, 1939. As a child, he sang and played piano. At 14, he took up the
trumpet and eventually the cornet and flugelhorn. His music protested the South
African government and its system of apartheid. He attributed some of his
success to Miles Davis, who advised him to diversify his style of music in
order to set himself apart.
He co-founded the Jazz Epistles, the
first African jazz group to record an album. He ultimately collaborated with
world renowned musicians such as Paul Simon, Herb Alpert, Ladysmith Black
Mambazo, and Miriam Makeba, to whom he was married for a short period in the
mid-1960s.
Masekela composed “Soweto Blues” in
1977 for Makeba, to commemorate the Soweto Uprising of 1976. He composed “Bring
Him Back Home” in 1987 in honor of Nelson Mandela, to protest his continued
imprisonment. The song became an unofficial anthem.
Masekela was instrumental in the musical development for the
Broadway play, “Sarafina!” and recorded with the band Kalahari. He was featured
in the documentary film “Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony” in 2003.
He founded the Botswana
International School of Music in 1985. He was nominated for three Grammy
Awards, including a nomination for “Grazing in the Grass.”
Masekela was known as the father of African
jazz, but was also widely known as an activist and philanthropist. The world
has lost an extraordinary musician and freedom fighter.
Edwin
Hawkins of the Edwin Hawkins Singers left this life on January 15,
2018 at the age of 74. He died in Pleasanton, CA of pancreatic cancer.
Hawkins was born on August 19,
1943 in my hometown of Oakland, CA. He was a professional singer and keyboardist with his
family’s gospel choir by the age of 7. He co-founded the Northern California
State Youth Choir, which contained nearly fifty members. In 1968, the choir recorded
their first album, “Let Us Go into the House of the Lord,” on which was the international
blockbuster crossover hit “Oh Happy Day” (re-released in 1969). Hawkins was
presented a Grammy for this successful gospel / soul recording.
In addition, Hawkins was credited
with three other Grammies, consisting of 1971’s Best Soul Gospel Performance for
“Every Man Wants to Be Free”; 1978’s Best Soul Gospel Performance,
Contemporary for “Wonderful!”; and 1993’s Best Gospel Choir or Chorus
Album for Edwin Hawkins Music & Arts Seminar Mass Choir.
In 1990, Hawkins recorded a solo
project entitled “If at First You Don’t Succeed (Try Again),” which reached 89
on the R&B charts.
Hawkins was credited as the choir
master in the 1992 film, “Leap of Faith,” starring Steve Martin.
In 2007, Hawkins was inducted into
the Christian Music Hall of Fame.
Hawkins directed his gospel choir
and performed through the 1990s. He was a local star, who is still shining
brightly.
