Tammi Terrell: Remembering Motown's Lost Star

Tammi Terrell: Remembering Motown's Lost Star
by Oliver Wang | NPR.org

When a brain tumor claimed the life of Motown artist Tammi Terrell in 1970, she was only 24. Yet by 1967, Terrell was a star, thanks to her duets with Marvin Gaye, including "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "Your Precious Love" and "You're All I Need to Get By." But Terrell also had a promising solo career before and during her collaboration with Gaye. For the first time, all of her solo recordings have been collected into a new anthology, called Come On and See Me.

Sampling Motown

Public session connects music to Civil Rights era

Motown Class Has the Nasher Museum Hopping
by Wendy Hower Livingston

Durham, NC -- A class at the Nasher Museum last night had Duke students bouncing in their seats.

They could not help themselves, especially during such classic tracks as “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye, “Superfreak” by Rick James and “I Want You Back” with a 10-year-old Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five. The music was part of "Sampling Motown: Soundtracks to the Civil Rights Era," a special public session of the "Sampling Soul" course co-taught by Grammy Award-winning DJ 9th Wonder and African and African American Studies professor Mark Anthony Neal.

The guest lecturer was Harry Weinger of Universal Music, who has overseen the catalogues of Motown and James Brown.

“Motown is the most recognized music brand in the world,” Weinger told the audience.

He remembers listening to Marvin Gaye in the back seat of his father’s car, craning his neck toward the speakers in the back, he said. “All these records have a timeless feel to them.”



As Weinger spoke, 9th Wonder cued up music samples to play. Students watched 9th Wonder find songs in his iTunes library through the Scratch LIVE program projected on a large screen that showed the names of the song and artist, length of the song and a visual representation of the song’s sound waves jumping in a green band across the screen.

The purpose of the class was to discuss sampling in music, learn about different careers in the music business and hear stories from the careers of all three speakers. Weinger told an anecdote about placing “the needle on the record” and Neal stopped him briefly, telling the audience, “I know that’s a strange phenomenon for some of you.”

Neal chose to hold the session at the Nasher Museum, he said, because of a connection between the class and an upcoming exhibition, “The Record: Contemporary Art & Vinyl,” opening Sept. 2. Neal contributed an essay to the catalogue that will accompany “The Record,” and 9th Wonder curated a crate of record albums that visitors will have the chance to peruse outside the exhibition.

The class was co-sponsored by Duke's Department of African & African American Studies.

'Sampling Motown' @ The Nasher Museum

'Sampling Motown' Lecture Open to the Public

Harry Weinger, vice president of A&R for Universal Music Enterprises, is the guest speaker.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Harry Weinger, vice president of A&R for Universal Music Enterprises and a 30-year veteran of the entertainment industry, is the guest speaker at next week’s “Sampling Motown” class at Duke University.

Weinger’s lecture, at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 23, in the lecture hall at Duke’s Nasher Museum of Art, will focus on the music of Motown. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; the lecture is free and open to the public.A recording of the event will be available at Duke on Demand.

The spring semester course, “Sampling Soul,” is co-taught by African and African American Studies professor Mark Anthony Neal and Grammy Award-winning music producer 9th Wonder. Each weekly class emphasizes a different aspect of sampling, from its history to legal considerations. The “Sampling Motown” class will highlight the music of the civil rights era.

“Harry is one of the most important shepherds of the soul music tradition and we all have a greater understanding of the impact that soul music has on American culture because of Harry's thoughtful explorations of Motown's musical archive," Neal said.

Weinger has produced, mixed, written and edited liner notes for hundreds of reissues, compilations and music DVDs, notably the Motown family of classic recordings, the James Brown catalog, the Verve Music catalog, and prominent funk, soul and jazz artists.

Among several projects, Weinger has documented every Motown single released during the company’s heyday in a multi-disc box set series. He also helped organize the many events and releases surrounding Motown Records’ 50th anniversary.

The “Sampling Soul” class explores how the songs that made up the soundtrack of social movements, such as the civil rights and black power movements of the 1960s and 1970s, remain relevant in contemporary culture. Students learn how soul music is continuously referenced in popular culture via movies, commercials and television sitcoms, forming a lucrative cultural archive.

Weinger’s appearance complements an upcoming Nasher exhibition, “The Record: Contemporary Art & Vinyl,” which will explore the culture of vinyl records within the history of contemporary art. The exhibition, set to open in September, is comprised of sound, sculpture, drawing, painting, photography, video and performance.

Mark Anthony Neal is the author of four books, including “New Black Man: Rethinking Black Masculinity” and the forthcoming “Looking for Leroy.” His essays have been anthologized in a dozen books, such as the recently released “Born To Use Mics: Reading Nas’s Illmatic,” edited by Michael Eric Dyson and Sohail Daulatzai.

9th Wonder, born Patrick Douthit, is a former member of the hip-hop trio Little Brother which released the critically acclaimed albums “The Listening” and “The Minstrel Show.” He has produced music for Jay-Z, Destiny’s Child, Mary J. Blige, and Erykah Badu among others. He also scored the music for “The Boondocks” animated television series. He was recently selected as the NAACP’s national ambassador for hip-hop relations and culture.