Grammy-nominated R&b singer Bj The Chicago Kid has signed with hit producer Yeti Beats’ new label Reach The World Records in a joint venture with Sony’s RCA Records.
Bj The Chicago Kid and Beats — who has worked on hits like Doja Cat’s “Say So,” “Kiss Me More” and “Woman” — are working on a collaborative album that will be released this summer. Their first single, “Forgot Your Name,” drops Wednesday.
“This project is very different for me. It’s essentially the colliding of Yeti’s world with my world. It’s a unique approach to soul music and serves as our invite to both new and old fans to savor our unique flavor of classic soul,” Bj The Chicago Kid tells The Hollywood Reporter in a statement. “I know some folks will call it a concept album, but for me it’s an experiment and exploration of sound...
Bj The Chicago Kid and Beats — who has worked on hits like Doja Cat’s “Say So,” “Kiss Me More” and “Woman” — are working on a collaborative album that will be released this summer. Their first single, “Forgot Your Name,” drops Wednesday.
“This project is very different for me. It’s essentially the colliding of Yeti’s world with my world. It’s a unique approach to soul music and serves as our invite to both new and old fans to savor our unique flavor of classic soul,” Bj The Chicago Kid tells The Hollywood Reporter in a statement. “I know some folks will call it a concept album, but for me it’s an experiment and exploration of sound...
- 5/2/2023
- by Mesfin Fekadu
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Syl Johnson, the Chicago soul singer and blues artist whose 1967 track “Different Strokes” became one of most sampled songs in hip-hop history, has died at the age of 85.
Johnson’s family announced his death Sunday; no cause of death was provided. The singer’s death comes just days after his older brother, Blues Hall of Fame inductee Jimmy Johnson, died at the age of 93, CBS Chicago reports.
“It is with extreme sadness that our family announces the passing of Soul & Blues Hall of Fame Legend, Syl Johnson (born Sylvester Thompson in Holly Springs,...
Johnson’s family announced his death Sunday; no cause of death was provided. The singer’s death comes just days after his older brother, Blues Hall of Fame inductee Jimmy Johnson, died at the age of 93, CBS Chicago reports.
“It is with extreme sadness that our family announces the passing of Soul & Blues Hall of Fame Legend, Syl Johnson (born Sylvester Thompson in Holly Springs,...
- 2/6/2022
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
The first time Howard Grimes met Al Green, he wasn’t sure the singer was who he claimed to be. Grimes was touring with Willie Mitchell’s band as a drummer when a man approached the ensemble at a show in Fort Worth, Texas, asking to perform a song. At the time, Green had released “Back Up Train,” a modest hit, but he was hardly a household name. Mitchell didn’t want to be conned, so he checked with the club owner to see if the singer was legit. Once Green’s identity was confirmed,...
- 12/29/2021
- by Elias Leight
- Rollingstone.com
A few years ago, Cedric Burnside was sitting with his acoustic guitar on the front porch of his home in Ashland, Mississippi, listening to the birds and thinking about grief and perseverance. For Burnside, the prior decade had been one of mourning and recovery; in 2012 he’d lost his brother, fellow musician Cody Burnside, at the age of 29, before losing his father, drummer Calvin Jackson, in 2015, and his mother, Linda Burnside, two years later.
“When my mom passed, I cried,” says Cedric. “When my brother passed, I cried. That’s...
“When my mom passed, I cried,” says Cedric. “When my brother passed, I cried. That’s...
- 6/16/2021
- by Jonathan Bernstein
- Rollingstone.com
Here’s a partial list of musicians we lost in the 2010s: Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, Chuck Berry, Ornette Coleman, B.B. King, Etta James, Whitney Houston, Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen, Prince, Merle Haggard, Kitty Wells, João Gilberto, Ravi Shankar, Tabu Ley Rochereau, David Mancuso, Amy Winehouse, Abbie Lincoln, Gil Scott Heron, George Jones, George Martin, George Michael, Allen Toussaint, Donna Summer, Phife Dawg, Prodigy, Adam Yauch, Heavy D, Captain Beefheart, Robert Hunter, Gregory Isaacs, Johnny Otis, Big Jay McNeely, Levon Helm, Kate McGarrigle, Guy Clark, Pete Seeger, Ralph Stanley, Gregg Allman,...
- 12/11/2019
- by Will Hermes
- Rollingstone.com
For most of her career, North Carolina rapper Rapsody has been in quarantine. Neither individual virtuosity, nor cosigns from Jay-Z, Black Thought, and Kendrick Lamar, have ever brought her the reverence awarded to other avowed lyricists of her ilk. Signed to Roc Nation and 9th Wonder’s Jamla Records, Rapsody is not an underground legend or a best kept secret. She’s invisible.
That sidelining and her yearning to overcome it without hypersexualizing herself or abandoning her style have been a focal point of her music for years (often at...
That sidelining and her yearning to overcome it without hypersexualizing herself or abandoning her style have been a focal point of her music for years (often at...
- 8/29/2019
- by Stephen Kearse
- Rollingstone.com
Structured like a collection of vivid memories rather than being controlled by a strict narrative arch, Tim Sutton’s “Memphis” is an experiential work that attempts to create a visual representation of a state of mind. Willis Earl Beal plays an outstandingly gifted musician who is not certain of the path he should follow. His talent is his cross to bear in a world that wants to exploit it. Vanishing into complete anonymity would suit him better than the ephemeral benefits of fame. With each ethereal and fragmented sequence, Sutton constructs sets of ideas and questions without ever offering definite answers or needing to.
Here is what the filmmaker shared with us about his creative process, spirituality, and Blues.
Carlos Aguilar: There are so many different ideas discussed simultaneously in “Memphis,” but they all revolved around this singular character. What was the original idea that sparked the writing process?
Tim Sutton: The very first idea that I had was influenced by the story of a singer named O.V. Wright. He is supposed to be the greatest singer to ever come out of Memphis. Al Green used to sneak into the studio to listen to him and try to get his trick. Aretha Franklin, Elvis, and others, they all try to listen to him at the studio. Elvis producer, Willie Mitchell said he was the best voice to come out of the city, but he is unknown. He was a very psychologically damaged character, when he died he was buried in an unmarked grave. That’s not a rare story within the idea of the Blues in American folklore. Having god-given talent but also having bad luck or having hellhound on you trail, that’s the real deal.
I wanted to make a movie that was not a “Blues movie” necessarily about Blues music or Soul music, but about the idea of a “Blues’ story. It is about a person who has wild gifts, almost magic powers. He has the voice of God, but for some reason, which he doesn’t explain, he doesn’t want to do what other people want him to do. He actually wants to just vanish. He wants to save his soul. I got the idea thinking about guys like O.V. Wright and movies like “Last Days” by Gus Van Sant - which I really like a lot - or the Maysles Brothers’ “Gimme Shelter,” because of their light touches of verite.
I wrote the story about this character who s of both world. One is a world of his own, a utopian vision, which is also sort of dystopian. The other is the real world in which people are trying to get him to sing. They are trying to get him to connect. I wrote a 40-page story, and that’s what got funded from the Venice Viennale and then we met Willis. He worked the character so clearly and so incredibly that a lot of the trappings that I had written were already embedded in him. Then we built the story piece by piece together.
Carlos Aguilar: Where you always conscious that you wanted the film to feel fragmented and have a surrealist atmosphere to it? Or did you ever considered how it would work as a more traditional narrative?
Tim Sutton: It was always supposed to be fragmented. It was always supposed to be something that feels like this is a world you are inhabiting more than a story. Some people are expecting more of a traditional narrative, like an indie version of “Ray,” but what I went out to make was a fragmented vision of a fragmented language. I always wanted it to feel like a psychedelic ghost story. I was more interested in making it something abstract over a more open-and-close narrative.
Carlos Aguilar: Spirituality and the Christian church seem to be very prominent in the film. God and religion are often present tin Willis’ work. Why was it important for you to include these references?
Tim Sutton: Making a movie about an African American singer in Memphis, even a very fictional one, to me it was always going to start and end with the church. I think that’s true to a town like Memphis and it’s true to the historic culture of the music. In the original story Willis does go back to church, but the more we worked on the story and the more Willis exerted his persona, it became quite obvious that Willis is a nature worshiper more than he is a Christian. As a filmmaker and as a person I’m the exact same way. I’m a Jew, but I’m a very secular Jew. I always knew that my spiritual sense was more in nature and with a more pastoral look at the world. That’s how I wanted the film to feel. I think Christians can watch this movie and really believe that the church is meaningful, but I wanted people to understand he has created his own spirituality and his own church, which is just as meaningful and works for him.
Carlos Aguilar: There seems to be a struggle within Willis about whether his talent is a curse or a blessing. Why is he so conflicted?
Tim Sutton: I think there is frustration for having something that he didn’t ask for. It is a natural talent. It doesn’t mean he would prefer not having the talent and not being that creative person, but what he doesn’t like is that his creativity needs to be recognizable to a certain vision. Whether is his producer saying, “You got to use this for an album” or his woman just wanting him be more committed to her and sing in the church, or his other friend saying “You got to sing for God.” What Willis really wants to do is to make it clear that music is just a part of him, is not something that he wants to push in a commercial direction. To him this is something that he feels more deeply, like whistling a tune down the street or singing to his friend in the car. That’s music to him. It’s something that’s more natural. I wanted to show that struggle, to me is not about a creative block. When talking about the film, a lot of writers talk about creative block. I think there is pieces of that in there for sure, but more importantly it’s about someone being creative in a way that is less recognizable to the mainstream.
Carlos Aguilar: Most of the scenes have an almost documentary quality to them. How much of what we see on screen was scripted and how much was it improvisation?
Tim Sutton: We would have a scenario, for example, one of my scenes says, “Willis is in the bedroom with the boy and they are playing cards”” I wanted that scene to feel verite because of the energy that Willis and the boy got off of each other. My cameraman had a little more free range in terms of creating this realistic feel.
I told Willis to ask him if he believes in God. The rest of it is really up to these people being in the room together and getting there. Sometimes it might come off as fake, but I’m never set on anything. If Willis asks something else or he does something different, I’m totally willing to go in that direction. I’m open to anything as long as it’s natural and it feels like it connects two people or like it connects a person with a place. I don’t shoot hours of footage and then find it in the edit. I just set up things with people who I think are comfortable enough to let scenes go and follow them where they go. Sometimes non-actors are better when they think the heart of the scene is over, and then they start giving you something meaningful. That’s how I work with a lot of non-actors, Willis included. He would never come right in and just bang it out, he really lived the character and then we would capture it.
Carlos Aguilar: Throughout the film you shift your attention towards the peripheral characters, those people who might not be at the center of the story but still play an important role. Why is this something that interests you?
Tim Sutton: The first version of the film we did for Venice had even more of these digressions with other people. I think it took a way from the experience that we were trying to create with Willis, but I do like moments in films where you go off with another character because this is their life too. It doesn’t have to connect plot-wise, it connects simply because we are with them now. I like this organic feeling. I like to go with someone else to experience what they’d be experiencing at the same time. In most movies you are no necessarily going to get that. Willis is like the Mississippi River, and then all these other characters are like streams of that river. They all have bodies of their own.
Carlos Aguilar: Given the nature of the project, what was the best and the most challenging thing about working with Willis?
Tim Sutton: The best thing about working with Willis is that he said he would go all the way and go down the line, and he did. There were scenes that we cut out because they weren’t his best, but what you see in the movie is a person completely living an independent and unique experience within the frame. It is absolutely Willis. At the same time it’s completely constructed. It’s all artifice and that was the idea of the movie. What Willis brings to it is this unbelievable sense of, not performance, but existence. The challenging part was mostly logistically. A film is sort of a living organism with lots of parts, and he is one of those parts. At times it was difficult to get the process going, sometimes it could be logistically frustrating.
Carlos Aguilar: The film is very open-ended. Was the end result or a definite conclusion important to you?
Tim Sutton: I think it is more about the idea of what success can mean. Some people at Q&As ask “Did he make the album?” and to me the album doesn’t matter. What matters is that he finds peace. In many ways every character finds some sort of peace at the end or everybody is moving forward. What I love about this movie is that I feel like Willis could still be in the woods or walking around town. Then another character could be living in Mississippi with his Cadillac. I feel like it’s one of those things that has a life of its own or could.
Carlos Aguilar: Ultimately, what would you say is at the center of this story? What’s its core?
Tim Sutton: I think it’s about a person searching to save his soul. I think it’s about life. It isn’t about one thing or the other. It’s about all these things wrapped together.
"Memphis" is currently playing in NYC and L.A.
Here is what the filmmaker shared with us about his creative process, spirituality, and Blues.
Carlos Aguilar: There are so many different ideas discussed simultaneously in “Memphis,” but they all revolved around this singular character. What was the original idea that sparked the writing process?
Tim Sutton: The very first idea that I had was influenced by the story of a singer named O.V. Wright. He is supposed to be the greatest singer to ever come out of Memphis. Al Green used to sneak into the studio to listen to him and try to get his trick. Aretha Franklin, Elvis, and others, they all try to listen to him at the studio. Elvis producer, Willie Mitchell said he was the best voice to come out of the city, but he is unknown. He was a very psychologically damaged character, when he died he was buried in an unmarked grave. That’s not a rare story within the idea of the Blues in American folklore. Having god-given talent but also having bad luck or having hellhound on you trail, that’s the real deal.
I wanted to make a movie that was not a “Blues movie” necessarily about Blues music or Soul music, but about the idea of a “Blues’ story. It is about a person who has wild gifts, almost magic powers. He has the voice of God, but for some reason, which he doesn’t explain, he doesn’t want to do what other people want him to do. He actually wants to just vanish. He wants to save his soul. I got the idea thinking about guys like O.V. Wright and movies like “Last Days” by Gus Van Sant - which I really like a lot - or the Maysles Brothers’ “Gimme Shelter,” because of their light touches of verite.
I wrote the story about this character who s of both world. One is a world of his own, a utopian vision, which is also sort of dystopian. The other is the real world in which people are trying to get him to sing. They are trying to get him to connect. I wrote a 40-page story, and that’s what got funded from the Venice Viennale and then we met Willis. He worked the character so clearly and so incredibly that a lot of the trappings that I had written were already embedded in him. Then we built the story piece by piece together.
Carlos Aguilar: Where you always conscious that you wanted the film to feel fragmented and have a surrealist atmosphere to it? Or did you ever considered how it would work as a more traditional narrative?
Tim Sutton: It was always supposed to be fragmented. It was always supposed to be something that feels like this is a world you are inhabiting more than a story. Some people are expecting more of a traditional narrative, like an indie version of “Ray,” but what I went out to make was a fragmented vision of a fragmented language. I always wanted it to feel like a psychedelic ghost story. I was more interested in making it something abstract over a more open-and-close narrative.
Carlos Aguilar: Spirituality and the Christian church seem to be very prominent in the film. God and religion are often present tin Willis’ work. Why was it important for you to include these references?
Tim Sutton: Making a movie about an African American singer in Memphis, even a very fictional one, to me it was always going to start and end with the church. I think that’s true to a town like Memphis and it’s true to the historic culture of the music. In the original story Willis does go back to church, but the more we worked on the story and the more Willis exerted his persona, it became quite obvious that Willis is a nature worshiper more than he is a Christian. As a filmmaker and as a person I’m the exact same way. I’m a Jew, but I’m a very secular Jew. I always knew that my spiritual sense was more in nature and with a more pastoral look at the world. That’s how I wanted the film to feel. I think Christians can watch this movie and really believe that the church is meaningful, but I wanted people to understand he has created his own spirituality and his own church, which is just as meaningful and works for him.
Carlos Aguilar: There seems to be a struggle within Willis about whether his talent is a curse or a blessing. Why is he so conflicted?
Tim Sutton: I think there is frustration for having something that he didn’t ask for. It is a natural talent. It doesn’t mean he would prefer not having the talent and not being that creative person, but what he doesn’t like is that his creativity needs to be recognizable to a certain vision. Whether is his producer saying, “You got to use this for an album” or his woman just wanting him be more committed to her and sing in the church, or his other friend saying “You got to sing for God.” What Willis really wants to do is to make it clear that music is just a part of him, is not something that he wants to push in a commercial direction. To him this is something that he feels more deeply, like whistling a tune down the street or singing to his friend in the car. That’s music to him. It’s something that’s more natural. I wanted to show that struggle, to me is not about a creative block. When talking about the film, a lot of writers talk about creative block. I think there is pieces of that in there for sure, but more importantly it’s about someone being creative in a way that is less recognizable to the mainstream.
Carlos Aguilar: Most of the scenes have an almost documentary quality to them. How much of what we see on screen was scripted and how much was it improvisation?
Tim Sutton: We would have a scenario, for example, one of my scenes says, “Willis is in the bedroom with the boy and they are playing cards”” I wanted that scene to feel verite because of the energy that Willis and the boy got off of each other. My cameraman had a little more free range in terms of creating this realistic feel.
I told Willis to ask him if he believes in God. The rest of it is really up to these people being in the room together and getting there. Sometimes it might come off as fake, but I’m never set on anything. If Willis asks something else or he does something different, I’m totally willing to go in that direction. I’m open to anything as long as it’s natural and it feels like it connects two people or like it connects a person with a place. I don’t shoot hours of footage and then find it in the edit. I just set up things with people who I think are comfortable enough to let scenes go and follow them where they go. Sometimes non-actors are better when they think the heart of the scene is over, and then they start giving you something meaningful. That’s how I work with a lot of non-actors, Willis included. He would never come right in and just bang it out, he really lived the character and then we would capture it.
Carlos Aguilar: Throughout the film you shift your attention towards the peripheral characters, those people who might not be at the center of the story but still play an important role. Why is this something that interests you?
Tim Sutton: The first version of the film we did for Venice had even more of these digressions with other people. I think it took a way from the experience that we were trying to create with Willis, but I do like moments in films where you go off with another character because this is their life too. It doesn’t have to connect plot-wise, it connects simply because we are with them now. I like this organic feeling. I like to go with someone else to experience what they’d be experiencing at the same time. In most movies you are no necessarily going to get that. Willis is like the Mississippi River, and then all these other characters are like streams of that river. They all have bodies of their own.
Carlos Aguilar: Given the nature of the project, what was the best and the most challenging thing about working with Willis?
Tim Sutton: The best thing about working with Willis is that he said he would go all the way and go down the line, and he did. There were scenes that we cut out because they weren’t his best, but what you see in the movie is a person completely living an independent and unique experience within the frame. It is absolutely Willis. At the same time it’s completely constructed. It’s all artifice and that was the idea of the movie. What Willis brings to it is this unbelievable sense of, not performance, but existence. The challenging part was mostly logistically. A film is sort of a living organism with lots of parts, and he is one of those parts. At times it was difficult to get the process going, sometimes it could be logistically frustrating.
Carlos Aguilar: The film is very open-ended. Was the end result or a definite conclusion important to you?
Tim Sutton: I think it is more about the idea of what success can mean. Some people at Q&As ask “Did he make the album?” and to me the album doesn’t matter. What matters is that he finds peace. In many ways every character finds some sort of peace at the end or everybody is moving forward. What I love about this movie is that I feel like Willis could still be in the woods or walking around town. Then another character could be living in Mississippi with his Cadillac. I feel like it’s one of those things that has a life of its own or could.
Carlos Aguilar: Ultimately, what would you say is at the center of this story? What’s its core?
Tim Sutton: I think it’s about a person searching to save his soul. I think it’s about life. It isn’t about one thing or the other. It’s about all these things wrapped together.
"Memphis" is currently playing in NYC and L.A.
- 9/14/2014
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
Drake is known for his fun, star-studded videos and the new 10-minute clip for his song ‘Worst Behavior’ is no exception! With cameos from Juicy J, Project Pat, and Drake’s father, Drizzy’s latest video is a real family affair!
Drake, 27, has done it again! The music video for “Worst Behavior,” shot in Memphis, Tennessee by Director X, is a delightful mix of all things old and new school. The clip opens on a 1970s-themed jazz band jamming at the historic Royal Studios — which was run by Drake’s uncle Willie Mitchell – before launching into Drizzy and his friends rocking out to the f-bomb-laden lyrics of “Worst Behavior.”
Drake’s ‘Worst Behavior’ — Drizzy Releases New Video Take Our Poll
The fun-filled video features Drake’s father, Dennis Graham, as a ’70s pimp who lip syncs to his son’s rhymes as he struts around in a showy white suit,...
Drake, 27, has done it again! The music video for “Worst Behavior,” shot in Memphis, Tennessee by Director X, is a delightful mix of all things old and new school. The clip opens on a 1970s-themed jazz band jamming at the historic Royal Studios — which was run by Drake’s uncle Willie Mitchell – before launching into Drizzy and his friends rocking out to the f-bomb-laden lyrics of “Worst Behavior.”
Drake’s ‘Worst Behavior’ — Drizzy Releases New Video Take Our Poll
The fun-filled video features Drake’s father, Dennis Graham, as a ’70s pimp who lip syncs to his son’s rhymes as he struts around in a showy white suit,...
- 11/11/2013
- by tierneyhl
- HollywoodLife
Drake is on his "Worst Behavior" with some of his nearest and dearest in his latest music video The 27-year-old rapper released the clip for his single from his album Nothing Was the Same, and the ten-minute music video features appearances from Drizzy's father Dennis Graham as well as two of his best friends, Juicy J and Project Pat. "Would You Like A Video?," the "Started From the Bottom" singer tweeted on Monday, Nov. 11 with a link to the clip. (Warning: This video contains language that may be offensive to some listeners.) Filmed in Memphis, Tennessee, the video begins by showing the historic Royal Studios, which was run by the performer's uncle Willie Mitchell,...
- 11/11/2013
- E! Online
In the music video for "Worst Behavior" (or is it "Worst Behaviour"? Make up your adorably Canadian mind!), Drake heads to Memphis. It's a whopper of a clip — opening in the historic Royal Studios (run by Drake's uncle, Willie Mitchell), featuring his father Dennis Graham lip-synching while dressed in full pimp regalia in front of Marlowe's Ribs & Restaurant, and including an intermission-style skit featuring Juicy J. The thing is ten minutes long. Drake's truly on his worst behavio(u)r.On a related note, last night Drake brought Juvenile out in Dallas to perform "Back That Azz Up":...
- 11/11/2013
- by Lindsey Weber
- Vulture
Grenada, Miss. — Bobby "Blue" Bland, a distinguished singer who blended Southern blues and soul in songs such as "Turn on Your Love Light" and "Further On Up the Road," died Sunday. He was 83.
Rodd Bland said his father died about 5:30 p.m. Sunday due to complications from an ongoing illness at his Memphis, Tenn., home surrounded by relatives.
Bland was known as the "the Sinatra of the blues" and heavily influenced by Nat King Cole, often recording with lavish arrangements to accompany his smooth vocals. He even openly imitated Frank Sinatra on the "Two Steps From the Blues" album cover, standing in front of a building with a coat thrown over his shoulder.
"He brought a certain level of class to the blues genre," said Lawrence "Boo" Mitchell, son of legendary musician and producer Willie Mitchell.
Bland was a contemporary of B.B. King's, serving as the blues great's...
Rodd Bland said his father died about 5:30 p.m. Sunday due to complications from an ongoing illness at his Memphis, Tenn., home surrounded by relatives.
Bland was known as the "the Sinatra of the blues" and heavily influenced by Nat King Cole, often recording with lavish arrangements to accompany his smooth vocals. He even openly imitated Frank Sinatra on the "Two Steps From the Blues" album cover, standing in front of a building with a coat thrown over his shoulder.
"He brought a certain level of class to the blues genre," said Lawrence "Boo" Mitchell, son of legendary musician and producer Willie Mitchell.
Bland was a contemporary of B.B. King's, serving as the blues great's...
- 6/24/2013
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Memphis, Tenn. -- Tenor saxophonist Andrew Love, who formed the award-winning Memphis Horns duo with trumpeter Wayne Jackson and played unforgettable lines behind the royalty of soul, rock, pop and R&B, has died at age 70, his wife said Thursday.
Willie Love told The Associated Press on Friday that her husband died Thursday night surrounded by family and friends at his Memphis home. Love had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Love is best known for his work with Jackson as The Memphis Horns. The two were awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in February, only the second instrumental backup group in history to receive the honor.
"He played with such feeling. He played with grace, soul," Willie Love said. "Andrew played notes from his heart."
Love, who was black, and Jackson, who is white, played together on 52 No. 1 records and 83 gold and platinum records, according to Memphis-based Stax Records. They backed up Aretha Franklin,...
Willie Love told The Associated Press on Friday that her husband died Thursday night surrounded by family and friends at his Memphis home. Love had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Love is best known for his work with Jackson as The Memphis Horns. The two were awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in February, only the second instrumental backup group in history to receive the honor.
"He played with such feeling. He played with grace, soul," Willie Love said. "Andrew played notes from his heart."
Love, who was black, and Jackson, who is white, played together on 52 No. 1 records and 83 gold and platinum records, according to Memphis-based Stax Records. They backed up Aretha Franklin,...
- 4/13/2012
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Good evening everybody, and welcome to the live blog for the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, which are beaming live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Though a handful of awards have already been handed out, the big contests tonight will include only the biggest superstars in music, including Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Jay-z, Eminem and countless others.
(Click here for all the hottest photos from the Grammy Awards red carpet!)
Tonight will also be about the live performances, including an all-star tribute to the late Michael Jackson in addition to a surprise duet partner for Lady Gaga and a hip-hop tag-team with Lil Wayne, Drake, Travis Barker and Eminem. So stay right here for the blow-by-blow of music's biggest night, and be sure to stay tuned to MTV News for the rest of the big stories coming out of tonight. And as always, make your voice heard in the comments below!
(Click here for all the hottest photos from the Grammy Awards red carpet!)
Tonight will also be about the live performances, including an all-star tribute to the late Michael Jackson in addition to a surprise duet partner for Lady Gaga and a hip-hop tag-team with Lil Wayne, Drake, Travis Barker and Eminem. So stay right here for the blow-by-blow of music's biggest night, and be sure to stay tuned to MTV News for the rest of the big stories coming out of tonight. And as always, make your voice heard in the comments below!
- 2/1/2010
- by Kyle Anderson
- MTV Newsroom
Welcome to the 217th series of my series. This week I pay tribute to the late Mark Christian and Willie Mitchell. This was a very hard one to put together and I can see I put a lot of unknown things on there but I'm satisfied with these results. I won't be doing a dvd review this week as I did not get this installment put together quick enough. I'll try to do one next week.Rock Hudson's Home...
- 1/10/2010
- by Shaun Berk
Celebrities from the world of music have paid tribute to late trumpeter and producer Willie Mitchell. Mitchell died on Tuesday at the age of 81 after suffering a heart attack two weeks ago. Writing on his band's official website, Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood said: "He made some of the sweetest, slinkiest, soulful records ever. "I remember years ago round at Jonny's listening to 'That Driving Beat', then devouring all the southern soul records he made." Former Stax owner and Memphis Music Foundation (more)...
- 1/8/2010
- by By Mayer Nissim
- Digital Spy
Willie Mitchell has passed away at the age of 81. The Mississippi-born producer, best known for his collaborations with Al Green, suffered a heart attack two weeks ago and died on Tuesday, reports BBC News. Mitchell produced songs for Green throughout the '70s, including the singer's signature track 'Let's Stay Together', and was also a prolific songwriter. In recent (more)...
- 1/6/2010
- by By Oli Simpson
- Digital Spy
Soul legend Al Green has been handed a lifetime achievement award at the Bet (Black Entertainment TV) hip-hop awards.
Green, a performer since the age of nine, rose to fame in the early '70s with the albums Let's Stay Together and Call Me. Success came for Green when, with the help of producer Willie Mitchell, he cultivated his own voice instead of trying to emulate heroes Jackie Wilson, Wilson Pickett and James Brown.
This year's . . .
Green, a performer since the age of nine, rose to fame in the early '70s with the albums Let's Stay Together and Call Me. Success came for Green when, with the help of producer Willie Mitchell, he cultivated his own voice instead of trying to emulate heroes Jackie Wilson, Wilson Pickett and James Brown.
This year's . . .
- 5/17/2008
- by Simon Reynolds
- Digital Spy
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