Fran's Blog

Anyone who has had the pleasure of speaking to me about music while drunk has most probably heard my rant about disco. The short story: disco has gone from the classy days (to sordid days) in the 70s to (a lot of the time) just pure tack. Of course every music form has its tack, but people sometimes hear me say “I play disco at my night” and they immediately think “IT’S FUN TO STAY AT THE YYYYMCA”, and not much else. That’s a big reason why we started our night Better Days almost 6 years ago, to start the classy side of disco, and other forms of old music again. The disco that is good music, associated with class and good times. But that is a whole other story. My point is, while music becomes classic, it can lose the class, and also the meaning it had in those times.

Retro has a tendency to become tacky. A lot of things from the 70s or any other decade are difficult to re-create without seeming out of place or out of time. Some get it right though. I recently went to see Raphael Saadiq at the Jazz Cafe who laid on a great performance from his new album “The way I see it” where he has taken an influence from the Motown days of old and very very slightly updated it. To the point where it looks great again. See what you think below.

Raphael Saadiq – Love That Girl from Artists Den on Vimeo.

Right, over the last several posts I’ve got well into the tech. I still am, but there is so much more to this world. So, back to some soul.

One of my favourite music blogs is called Soul Sides, it covers more than just what its URL suggests. It delves into funk, prog rock etc. and is well worth a look. Today they posted about a fairly little known artist called Donnie. He’s been around for quite a while now. I heard about him in about 2001 on the then Jazz FM soul show. He sounded like Stevie Wonder and Donnie Hathaway (he even started singing at his church, like so many others). I managed to get my hands on some early releases of his music (which had different production for most songs) and managed to get to a gig at the Jazz Cafe in Camden. I waited for an album, and about a year later it finally reared up as a release on Giant Step records (later signing to Motown).

This boy has some serious talent. It took a few listens to fully appreciate. But the album just keeps giving, even 7/8 years later. It’s very socially conscious, but intelligently so. You can hear samples at: http://soul-sides.com/2009/05/donnie-soul-brother-from-another.html. His album “The Colored Section” is also on Spotify.