From the Soul Sister Chronicles: Valerie Simpson

from Vibe.com

The Soul Sister Chronicles: Valerie Simpson
(the Women's History Month Mix)
by Mark Anthony Neal

At the height of Motown's popularity in the mid-1960s, some of the song writers and producers were just as famous as the recorded talent. Smokey Robinson wore dual hats, but figures like Holland Dozier Holland and later Norman Whitfield were deservedly major stars in their own right and even more so because of Motown's sheen. It was a competitive environment and the young Nick Ashford and his writing partner Valerie Simpson were undaunted when they signed on to Motown as songwriters and producers in 1966. Indeed the duo had already had Aretha Franklin (who was not quite that Aretha yet) and Ray Charles ("Let's Go Get Stoned") on their resume when they walked into the door.

The rest is history as signature Ashford and Simpson tunes recorded by the duo of Tammi Terrell and Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross are still in regular rotation on the radio, in commercials and on film soundtracks. After leaving Motown in 1973, the duo went on to a distinguished recording career releasing nearly 15 studio albums for the Warner Brothers and Capitol labels culminating with the release of a remix of their most famous single, "Solid" earlier this year in celebration of the presidency of Barack Obama.

Less well known is the solo recording career of Valerie Simpson, who before she and Nick Ashford began their run as Ashford and Simpson, recorded two solo albums for the Motown label. Exposed (1971) and Valerie Simpson (1972) represented the cutting edge of a generation of black women artists that included LaBelle, Betty Davis, and Minnie Riperton (particularly her Charles Stepney produced Come into My Garden) that harked back to the great Blues Women of the 1920s like Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, Ethel Waters and Ma Rainey--all women who used their music to speak forcefully about the realities of being black women. This was an era that was perhaps best captured by the publication of the Toni Cade Bambara edited anthology The Black Woman (1970).

Read the Full Essay HERE

The Soul of Ellis Haizlip

from Thirteen WNET-NY

Ellis Haizlip and Soul! History
by Gayle Wald

It’s 1973. An impressively-dressed Ashford & Simpson launch into “Keep It Comin’,” a radiant soul song about the sustaining power of love. As she sings, Simpson raises her arm above her head, the gesture simultaneously a nod to the rhythm and a revolutionary salute. Both she and Ashford are beaming. As the camera pans back from the singers, it becomes apparent that so, too, is the audience. Heads keep time, feet tap gently; the room is softly alive and buzzing, the massed bodies a single unit, riding the song’s unifying and sustaining groove. “Keep it comin. Keep it comin.’”

The warmth and celebratory air of the “Ashford and Simpson” episode was a hallmark of Soul!. From its September 1968 debut to the final episodes in 1973, Soul! provided a stage for a breathtaking array of black cultural and political luminaries, including many performers who had never before appeared on TV. It did so, moreover, in a variety-show format that mixed “high” culture with “low,” well-known names like Sidney Poitier with (then) up-and-coming figures like Stevie Wonder and poet Nikki Giovanni. Most importantly, Soul! was unapologetic about aiming its diverse and self-critical weekly affirmation of black culture and politics to African American viewers, a group that had previously not had the pleasure of seeing itself widely, or truthfully, represented on television.

Soul! was the brainchild of Ellis Haizlip, the first black producer at WNET (then WNDT), who joined the station in the mid-60s. Haizlip was approached by Christopher Lukas, the station’s white director of cultural programming, with the idea of launching an arts program for black audiences. Haizlip developed the notion of a program that would use the variety-show format (familiar from commercial fare such as The Ed Sullivan Show) to display the breadth and variety of black culture. Soul!’s mission would be not merely to entertain African American viewers, but to challenge them to ponder the possible meanings of black culture and black community at a time when African Americans were driving American social transformation.

Read the Full Essay HERE

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Gayle Wald is a professor of English at George Washington University, where she teaches African American literature, popular music and U.S. culture. She is author of Shout, Sister, Shout!: The Untold Story of Rock-and-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe (Beacon 2007) and Crossing the Line: Racial Passing in U.S. Literature and Culture (Duke University Press, 2000).

The Early Days of Blackness and Public Television

from Vibe.com

CRITICAL NOIR: Black & Public
by Mark Anthony Neal

In celebration of Black History Month, Thirteen/WNET in New York recently launched the on-line project, Broadcasting While Black. The flagship station of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) the efforts by Thirteen/WNET could easily be read as another seasonal gimmick aimed at generating more financial support for public broadcasting among Black Americans--and such a reading wouldn't be wrong. But I'd like to suggest that something more substantial is also at play, captured in part by the comments of Thirteen/WNET on-line editor Robin Edgerton who writes, that while mainstream Black History Month programming typically focuses on the history of racial conflict and oppression ("Black History Month then becomes, in part, White History Month"), "this online project emphasizes identity--African-Americans who took control of media moving their debates and art forward--and at the same time developing a broader place and stronger voice."

Broadcasting While Black offers a compelling snapshot of the heady days of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements when the desire for many factions within Black America to tell their story came to fruition via public affairs broadcasting on stations such as WNET in New York City, WGBH in Boston and WTTW in Chicago. Among the signature shows produced in the late 1960s were Black Journal (Tony Brown's Journal), Soul!, and Say Brother (Basic Black), which is the longest running program of its type in the country. Many of these programs were informed by a distinctly local perspective, as was the case with Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant, which was produced by current WNET-producer Charles Hobson.

Read the Full Essay HERE