#TheSoulMixtape Remembers Prince 1977-87

So the grim reaper keeps himself busy this year. Not only taking Prince from us, but as of this morning Billy Paul too.

You will hear and read so much about Prince that all I can do is say that he provided the Soundtrack to my teenage years. I went to numerous concerts. I searched out bootlegs of The Black Album. bought every 12" for the non-LP tracks on the B sides.....you get the point.

For me, 77-87, up until The Sign of the Times LP, were the years I was most obsessed. And so Ive focused on them just for the memories. Ive tried to stay away from "The Best of" route with some lesser known tracks, but I hope you enjoy.

Nuwaveradio have a raft of shows paying tribute to the man himself, so if you like this, tune in at nuwaveradio.net for more.

#RIPPrince

RIP George Duke

As reported yesterday, musician, arranger, producer and all round nice guy George Duke passed away.

An artist who varied his musical styles from jazz to funk, from latin to pop, to r&b and rock, he was a man of immense talent, much loved by his peers.

 For me though, I will always love his "Brazilian Love Affair" LP.

 From the first time I heard that, it was all Duke, all day, any day. RIP

RIP - Donald Byrd

You know I resisted. I don't like writing these RIP posts and Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner, lead singer of the Ohio players passed away. I left it to others to sing his deserved praises. Then, earlier this week, Cecil Womack (One half of Womack & Womack, brother of Bobby, writer of Teddy's great "Love T.K.O") passed away. I succumbed slightly and tweeted the bad news.

But then, at the age of 80, One of my gateways into Jazz passes away. Donald Byrd. I can't let this one go silently.

An esteemed trumpeter, Byrd  joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers at a young age, going on to perform with many leading jazz musicians of the day, including John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Thelonius Monk, and later Herbie Hancock. 

But my relationship to Byrd is rooted more in his ’70s Blue Note recordings, especially when he hooked up with the Mizell Brothers on production. 

He teamed up with producer-writers Larry and Fonce for Black Byrd in 1973. It became Blue Note Records' highest-ever selling album. The Mizell brothers' follow-up albums for Byrd, Street Lady, Places and Spaces and Stepping into Tomorrow, were also big sellers, and have subsequently provided a rich source of samples for many Hip Hop tracks. Most of the material for the albums were written by Larry Mizell. In 1973, he created The Blackbyrds, a fusion group consisting of his best students. They scored several major hits including "Happy Music", "Walking In Rhythm", and "Rock Creek Park".

Although Donald continued his musical career thereafter, which also included teaching, it's his 70's period music that turned me onto jazz. A mixture of jazz, funk and soul, I'll be forever indebted to Donald and the Mizell brothers for expanding my musical horizons with such seminal works.

Below are a few of the classics Donald leaves for us. R.I.P Mr Byrd.

SoulNRnB

UPDATE:


Grizz has re-uploaded his Donald Byrd Artist mix. Get it here: Donald Byrd - Artist mix

RIP Terry Callier

Uber cool jazz/soul/folk singer who 1st came to prominence in the the 60's/70's and enjoyed a renaissance in recent years passed today...RIP






Enjoy Ordinary Joe -live

Grizz


 

And here's something a little more recent from the great man, In a Heartbeat Feat. Koop.

SoulNRnB

Fileserve

First Megaupload, then Filesonic, now Fileserve. All down.

This means that most of the previous mixes have gone the way of the dodo.

Hope you all got the ones that you wanted that were hosted on Fileserve. Will look around for a new host, so stay tuned. Let's hope this isn't the beginning of the end for blogs like this one.

SoulNRnB

UPDATE 24/1/12

Looks like a return to Rapidshare for me, will upload some of the previous mixes for you but can't do all. Should be normal resumption of service Friday unless there are more major upheavals.

Will say that this may be the last resort really, and that the blog will have to change (or worse, shut down) if these last fileshare hosts shut down.

Will update the actual post links with the amended Rapidshare links, so check the posts your interested in from time to time as they may get re-upped.

Any suggestions welcome, as are requests for re-up's of previous mixes. Post a comment on this update.

Megaupload

You may be aware that the US authorities have closed down Megaupload following all the copyright heat hitting the fan over the pond right now!

Our support goes out to the Megaupload guys in their battle against the madness going on over there right now. Rest assured I'll be doing my best to source another file-host at the weekend where I can re-up some of my recent mixes and hopefully resume normal service next week.

Keep sharing the Soul Love

Grizz

Oh, and it can't be that bad for business if this lot endorse it!

RIP Alphonso “Fonce” Mizell 1943-2011

 

Alphonso “Fonce” Mizell has passed away. Fonce together with his brother, Larry, were studio engineers and producers who worked along various great artists like Donald Byrd and Bobbi Humphrey, as well as producing one of the greatest LP's of all time (In my opinion of course!) in Johnny Hammonds "Gears". (Check out the discography HERE).

Grizz kick started my "Great Producer" mixes with his mix of Mizell Brother favorites here:

DJ Grizz - Mizell Brothers Mix

and this link is for the Marc Mac and Dego mix that they did a while back. (Alphonso's brother, Larry, appeared on the last 4Hero LP, Play with the Changes.)

4Hero - Mizell Brothers special

A great loss, and a great inspiration to many. Only the other day, I commented to Zo! on Twitter about his track "Flight of the Blackbyrd" on SunStorm, his last LP, sounding like a mizell production. His reply?

"Those kats are a huge influence....".

Mark Adams of SLAVE - RIP

Going through our Tweets on Twitter, saw that Steve Arrington had posted that Mark Adams, bass player extrodinaire of Slave had passed away.

Its no exaggeration to say that Mark was my favorite bass player of all time, even over the likes of my other bass playing heroes such as Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller and my current favorite Gene Perez.

Slave would not be the same force without Mark or as proved, without Steve Arrington. Check out Slave's discography, the funkiest band ever IMO, and our sympathies go out to his friends and family.

Press play below for a touch of funk.

RIP Teena Marie

Soloman Burke, Willie Mitchell, Gregory Issacs, Teddy Pendergrass and now Teena.... 2010 has taken some real talent from us this year. Take note X Factor- this is what real singer sounds like!